The Truth Comes Out
by Queen of Shadows
Summary: It's Peter and Sophies 5 year anniversary and everyone is brought back to Horizon for it. Including Shelby who has a surprise for everyone most importantly Scott whom she hasn't seen since she ran away from him almost 6 years
1. A World of My Own

Shelby was walking around her bedroom packing clothes into a suitcase that was sitting, open on her bed. She was holding the phone on her shoulder as she was talking to Daisy.

"I can't believe you're going this weekend." Daisy said to Shelby.

Shelby sighed.

"Look, I promiced Peter and Sophie I would go. I can't back out of it." Shelby responded.

"He's gonna be there, you know."

"I know."

Before any more words were spoken you heard a little girl giggle in the backround. Right down the hall was Jena, Shelbys 5 year old daughter. She was watching 'Alice in Wonderland'. She adored the movie and watched it almost daily. You could hear her singing along to "We're painting the Roses Red" and dance around the living room.

Daisy and Shelby both cuckled at hearing Jena.

"Are you going to tell him about her?" Daisy asked Shelby.

Shelby sighed again.

"Not if I can avoid it." Shelby responded.

"He needs to know."

"Needs to know who? That I left him five and a half years ago 'cause I was pregnant with his kid and was scared of how he would react?"

"Why not?"

"No, Dais. If I can get away with him not finding out this weekend than I'm going to. I don't need him to have another reason to hate me."

"Fine. I'll stay quiet. Again" Daisy started and stressed the 'again' part. "But you're going to have to tell him sooner or later."

Shelby walked out of her bedroom and down the hall into the kitchen where she could see Jena in the living. She gazed at Jena and smiled.

"I know." Shelby said softly.

"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow though. Jason's here and we still need to pack." Daisy said.

"Is Jason coming with you this weekend?" Shelby asked.

"Yes. He is my Finacé, Shelby. Besides, I want to show him off to everyone." Shelby couldn't see Daisy but she knew she was grinning.

"Allright. See you tomorrow night then."

They both hung up but didn't actually say 'good-bye'. They never did actually. It always just understoof between the two of them when the other was going to hang up.

Shelby put the phone on the counter and went over by Jena and turned off the T.V. Jena whined and gave her mommy bright blue, puppy dog eyes.

"Mommy.."Jena whined.

Shelby picks Jena up in her arms before she can complain again.

"I know. I'm sorry sweety but you have to get ready for bed. We're leaving early tomorrow." Shelby said, while walking Jena down the hallway into her bedroom.

Shelby put Jena down on her bed and grinned to her daughter. Shelby looked around Jenas room and tried to look occupied right before she started to tickle her. Jena laughed and screamed 'stop, stop' Shelby stopped and they sat on Jenas little bed.

"Mommy?" Jena asked.

"hmm?" Shelby responded.

"Where are we going tomorrow?"

"We, my little angel, are going to see Aunt Daisy and then we're all going up by some of mine and Aunt Daisys old friends for one of their 5 year wedding aniversarys."

Obviously, Daisy wasn't Jena actually Aunt but becuase Daisy was so close to Jena, Jena always thought of her as an Aunt.

"Can I bring 'Alice'?" Jena asked adressing 'Alice in Wonderland'.

"Yes, you can bring 'Alice'. Now come on. We have to brush your teeth and then it's off to bed for you."

Shelby and Jena were in the bathroom brushing their teeth and once they were both done Shelby walked Jena back to her room and tucked her into bed. Shelby turned on Jenas nightlight which was a little star that lit up.

Shelby kissed Jena on the forhead and smiled to her before saying, "Good night, my angel" and leaving the room.

Shelby walked into her own bedroom and lied down on her bed in the dark. A sigh left her lips as she started to think about Scott. She sat up and turned on the lamp that she was right next to her bed and pulled out a picture of her and Scott at their graduation from Horizon. She smiled and tear fell down her cheek. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Shelby put the picture back in the drawer, turned off the light and layed back down to go to sleep.

* * *

The next morning Shelby and Jena got up at 7 am and were out of their house on the way to Daisys by 8 am. The deal Shelby had with Daisy was that she would be there by 8:30 and Daisys house wasn't exactly close. Shelby got Jena into her 'big kid' carseat and buckled her in and then she slid into the drivers seat. Shelby started the car, pulled out of the drive and started to drive to Daisys house.

Shelby tried to make it look like she wasn't worried about seeing Scott this weekend but failed miserably. She couldn't even convince her own 5 year old daughter that she was okay. Shelby bit her bottom lip and continued to drive.

Once Shelby pulled into Daisys driveway she turned off the engine and got out of the car. She went and unbuckled Jena and picked her up taking her also out of the car. Once Shelby put the alarm on the car she just stood and gazed at her daughter. She had so much of her father in her. Just the thought of him made Shelbys eyes swell with tears.

"What's the matter, mommy?" Jena asked Shelby.

"Oh. Nothing, sweety." Shelby started with a fake smile, "Come on. Aunt Daisy and Jason are waiting for us."

Shelby took Jenas hand and they walked up to Daisys door and walked in without knocking-that's how close Shelby and Daisy were.

"Dais.?" Shelby called.

Daisy and Jason walked into plain sight and Jena immediatly ran to Daisy and jumped into her arms. Daisy was really like an Aunt to her. She was always there for her and Shelby.

Jason was tall, looked to be about 6'1, 6'2 and he had dirty blonde hair. Nothing like Scotts hair, it was too dark for that, but it wasn't a true brown either. Still, the thing that drew someone into Jason was his eyes. They were the most beautiful emerald green. He grabbed the two suticases of his and Daisys and walked out of the door and put them in the back of their SUV. He came back through the threshhold and looked around to everyone.

"Ready when you guys are." he said

Shelby looked around and nodded to him. She looked back to Daisy and a look of worry passed her face. Daisy walked over to Shelby with Jena still in her arms and nudged her.

"Relax, Shel. You'll be fine." Daisy said to be reassuring.

"I hope so." Shelby said, not sounding convinced that she would be.

Shelby took Jena from Daisys arms and they walked out of Daisys house. Once again, Shelby buckled Jena into her carseat and walked around the other side to slip into her Silver Dodge Neon. Jason and Daisy pulled out of the driveway with Jason driving and Shelby followed them.

"Mommy, are we going to that place now?" Jena asked adressing Horizon.

"Yes, we are." Shelby responded.

Just to make Jena happy, Shelby sang the "Wonderland" song from 'Alice in Wonderland' Jena loved hearing Shelby sing it.

"'In a world of my own, all the flowers, would have very extra special powers. They would sit and talk to be for hours when I'm lonely in a world of my own. There'd be new brids. Lots of nice and friendly howdy-do birds. And everyone would have a dozen blue birds. Within that world of my own. I could listen to a battleing book and hear a song that I could understand. I keep wishing that it could be that way becuase my world would be a wonderland.'"

By the time Shelby finished the section of the song she was singing, Jena had fallen asleep in her car seat. Shelby smiled and thought that it was best. The last thing she wanted or needed right now was a cranky 5 year old who is only cranky 'cause she struck in her carseat for hours on a trip to Mt. Horizon for the 5 year anniversary of two people she's never even met. Peter and Sophie don't even know that she exsists. In fact, out of everyone at Horizon, Daisy is the only one who knows about Jena. Let alone who her father is.

* * *

(**A/N**)- Well, this is a new story, obiously. Don't worry though. I will be finishing Love and War. I hope people like this story. It's different than anything I've tried before so I would appreciate reveiws-good or bad- on how I do. 


	2. Home, Sweet, Horizon

Jason pulled in behind two cars that were already there and Shelby pulled in right behind them. They both turned off their cars and saw another car pull in behind them. Shelby got out of her car and went to the back seat and got Jena, who was now awake again, out of her car seat, She took her out of the car and straitened out her blonde hair. Since her hair was more like her fathers than her mothers, she has a small curl to it.

Shelby picked Jena up and rested her on her hip. She was pretty big for being held but Shelby didn't care. Daisy and Jason walked over by Shelby. Shelby looked around at the familiar place.

"Home, sweet, Horizon." Shelby wispered.

Jena heard what her mom said and asked, "Was there your home when you was littler, mommy?"

Shelby was about to answer 'no' but smiled and said, "Yeah, it was."

Jason took Jena from Shelbys arms and Daisy nudged Shelby.

"Relax." Daisy said smirking.

"You're right. I'll be fine. I'll be just fi..." Shelbys words trailed off as she saw Peter, Ezra and most imortantly Scott walk out by them.

It was at then that Shelby and Daisy noticed Juliet and Auggie were in the car who pulled in behind them. Auggie and Juliet came over and said there hellos to Shelby and Daisy. Juliet gave the two girls hugs and ran over to Peter and gave him a big hug, then moved to Scott and then to Ezra. For some reason, Juliet was in a hugging mood.

Shelby smiled as Peter walked by her and gave her a head. That was also the first time Peter noticed Jason or Jena.

"Well, I'm Peter Scarbrow. I don't think I've met you before." Peter said and shook hands with Jason.

Shelby took Jena from Jasons arms and put her down so she could stand.

"That's Jason." Shelby answered since Daisy was busy catching up with Ezra.

Peter bent down so he was the same height as Jena.

"And who are you?" Peter asked her.

Jena looked up to Shelby as if questioning whether it was okay or not to answer and Shelby nodded her head.

"I'm Jena." She started very proudly.

"Well, Jena, I'm Peter. Is this your mom?" Peter asked pointing to Shelby.

Jena nodded, "uh-huh!"

"And is that your dad?" Peter asked pointing to Jason.

"No. That's Jason. He's with Auntie Daisy."

"Auntie Daisy?"

"Yupp!"

Peter stood up again and looked to Shelby.

"Daisy and Jena are really close. Dais. is like an Aunt to her." Shelby said and Peter nodded.

Scott glanced at Shelby and then down at Jena. He was pretty suprised that she had a kid. Especially that her kid was so big. Scott walked to Shelby which made her kind of tense and everyone stop to look at them. Shelby looked to everyone and shook her head which made them look away again.

"Hey." Scott said trying to make conversation.

"Hey." Shelby said back with a smile.

"So. You have a daughter?"

"Yeah. Her name's Jena."

"How old is she? 'Cause she looks pretty old for someone as young as you."

"She's 5. And yeah, I got pregnant with her pretty young."

"So basically right after you left me."

Shelby kind of glared at Scott before saying, "Not really."

Katherine came out of the building out by everyone carrying a little boy. The child looked to be about 2 or 3 years old and Shelby assumed that he was Kats son. Katherine walked over by Shelby and hugged her with her free arm.

"Hey, Shel." She smiled to her.

"Hey." Shelby said back, returning the smile.

Without saying anything, Scott walked away and over by the rest.

"So, looks like I'm not the only one with a kid." Shelby said looking to the child in Kats arms.

"Oh, yeah. This is Christopher, but we just call him Chris. Usually Hank takes care of him on days when I have class but since you guys were coming I had Hank drop him off 'cause I wanted him to see everyone."

"So Hanks the father?"

"Yes. He's also my husband"

Shelby smirked.

"Well, this is Jena. Maybe the two can entertain eachother this weekend." Shelby said.

"Maybe. Chris is 3. How old is Jena?"

"5."

"Wow. You had her young."

"Yes, I did." Shelby said thinking of how annoyed she was getting with people telling her how young she was when she had her daughter.

Juliet, Auggie, Daisy, Jason, Scott, Peter and now Hank and Sophie since they were outside came over by Kat and Shelby. Sophie hugged Shelby and didn't want to let go but Peter put his arm on her shoulder and she let go. David pulled into the driveway in a red 67' mustange. A classic. Trust David to drive one of those. He got out of his car and picked up a little girl from a carseat. She looked to be about 2 years old. She had blonde hair unlike David but she had his eyes.

"I hope no one minds. I had to bring Michelle since I'm watching her this week while her mother's on her honeymoon." He said as if he's been there the whole time and doesn't have to worry about saying 'hello'.

Before anyone could say anything Ezra asked, "Neice?"

David looked to Ezra.

"No, daughter." David paused at all the weird looks he was getting at the fact that he had a daughter. "Past relationship. I may be a jerk but I'm not so big a jerk that I'm not going to take responsibility for my own kid." David continued and saw Chris and Jena, "At least, I'm not the only one with a kid." He pointed to Chris and said, "Yours" to Kat and then pointed to Jena and said "yours or yours" alternating the pointing between Scott and Shelby.

Shelby froze up at the fact that he said Jena was Scotts or at least could be. She took a breath and said, "Mine. And I swear if you say that I had her young, you'll beg for death." She smiled to David who smirked back.

"Any chance I can get names of the other two kids. And ages if it's not to much trouble?" David asked.

Kat and Shelby were both about to talk but they stopped when she saw the other one was going to talk. Then they both assumed the other was going to let them talk so they both started again. They stopped and chuckled.

"You first." Shelby said.

Kat nodded.

"This is Chris and he's 3." Kat said.

"And this is Jena and she's 5" Shelby said.

"Okay well this is Michelle and she's 2." David said smiling at Michelle. He actually loved her. It was so cute. Yet..so weird. David's never really showed is feelings for anything. Except that whole this with Daisy but that was different.

"Okay. Well, since the addition on the place, we have enough room for all fo you guys to stay in your own cabin here is you want." Sophie said to everyone.

Everyone nodded.

"Okay. Then let's get you guys settled in. That way you guys can still make it for dinner" Peter said.

"Don't threaten them, Peter." Kat joked.

Everyone chuckled and followed Sophie, Peter and Kat to where they were all going to be staying.

* * *

The cabins were pretty nice; better than the dorms were when everyone was first there. And Sophie was nice enough to get another little bed to add to the queen size one for Jena in Shelbys room. David didn't need one since he brought a big crib that was so easy to put otgeth that it was silly not to let Michelle sleep in her own crib. It was just a full size matress that she had Peter bring in and put sheets on on the floor. It wasn't fancy but it was good enough and Jena, for some odd reason, loved the idea of sleeping on the floor. Shelby didn't argue, she just chukcled and let her daughter have her fun. 

Shelby took out their portable 10" DVD player she brought with them. Shelby put in 'Alice in Wonderland' for Jena since she was asking for it. A couple minutes into the movie, Jena was jumping around saying "I'm late. I'm late" with the white rabbit.

Shelby couldn't resist it any longer. She took out her FinePix S20 Pro digital camera that she used at work (**A/N**- Shelby's a photographer) and started to snap pictures of Jena. Shelby sat on her bed and gazed at her daughter as she watched her movie. Shelby got off her bed, sat down by Jena and watched the movie with her.

* * *

(**A/N**)- I know this is't exactly the most exciting chapter but this is the arrival of everyone. And I did want to hint that Scott realizesShelby was pregnant around the time she left him. Next chapter will have more things going on it in though so don't worry.

Please do reveiw though. I'd like to know how you guys think I'm doing with this fic. This is my first future fic and the first fic that I'm posting as I write. My other ones I've always had all the way done and then posted chapter by chapter so let me know what you think.

Hope you enjoyed this!


	3. Bufferflies

Scott woke up with butterflies in his stomache. He hasn't felt like this is so long; since the last time he saw Shelby. He could remember that day like it was yesterday.

They were both 18 years old and they were living together in this little apartment that they could hardley pay for as it was. It was going to be there official two year anniversary and Scott went out to get an engagment ring for Shelby. True, they were very young, but they've been in love for two years. Why not get married? When he came home that night, Shelby wasn't there. The apartment was simply empty and Scott didn't know why.

He kept thinking, she'll come back. He was so sure of it. But Shelby never came back. And to this day, he doesn't know why she left. He was hoping to get that answer tonight.

Tonight was the reason why they were all there. Today was the 5 year wedding anniversary of Sophie and Peter and they were having a party. It was semi-formal; nothing like the MORP was but still, one couldn't wear sweats and a hoodie.

Scott couldn't wait to see Shelby that night for some reason. Depsite all the pain she's put him through in the past 5 and a half years with him not knowing where she was or why she left, he still loved her. Deep down, he would always love her.

Scott had a good, nervous feeling going through his body. He couldn't keep a smile off his face becuase he was so happy that he he saw her yesterday and would be able to see her again tonight. Yet, at the the same time, he was so worried and he couldn't sit still.

Scott put on his simple black dress pants and a blue dress shirt that really brought out the blue in his eyes. He geled his hair, which he still kept short, and then walked out of the bathroom to put on his shoes. He couldn't stop looking at the clock, wanting it to be 7:00 p.m. already but whenever he watched the clock, it seemed like time went by slower.

Scott sighed and lied down on his bed. He looked over to the clock again and saw that it was 6:32. _Only half an hour_, Scott thought.

* * *

Shelby was his her bathroom doing her hair. She took some of her blonde hair and put it up in a pony tail holder; kind of like a half up/half down. She had two small strands of hair that she had accenting her face. 

Shelby already did her make-up. She had that tan complection that she normally had and she accented her blue eyes with black eye-liner and a grey eye shadow; smokey eyes. She put a very light colored lip gloss on her lips and was as ready as she could be.

She smoothed out the black skirt shehad on that went to just below mid-thigh so it wasstill pretty shortand then fixed her slik,dark red, v-neck top. She sighed and combed out the hair that she hadn't put up and bit her bottem lip.

Jena came into the bathroom by Shelby wearing a white dress with blue and yellow flowers all over it. She had on little white sandle dress shoes too. Her blonde locks were brushed out and they weren't curled too much today. Jena really resembled Scotts mother. Jena had a natural glow to her tan skin which brought out her bright blue eyes.

She smiled to her mother and said, "I'm bootiful." She had tried to say beautiful but it always came out bootiful.

Shelby smiled. "Yes, you are." She said back and walked out of the bathroom.

Shelby sat on her bed and put on her shoes. They were simple two in heel, sandle, black dress shoes. They made her 5'7 which she always liked. A sigh left her lips, yet again, and she looked over to the clock. It was 6:47. She put in her earings and looked over to Jena.

"Wanna go by Daisy and Jason?" Shelby asked even though she knew the answer would be 'yes'.

Shelby and Jena walked out of their room after Shelby took one last glance at herself in the mirror and they walked to the cabin next to theirs. It was Daisys and Jasons. Shelby knocked and Jason answered the door with his dress pants on and his shirt half on; it was on just unbuttoned. He motioned them to come in and they complied.

Shelby walked in and saw Daisy doing her hair. She was wearing a long black skirt and a dark, midnight blue top. Her dark hair had loose curles in it and it was styled so that some curles were up and some were down. It looked great on Daisy but Shelby could never pull it off.

Daisy made sure she had kept her engagment ring on for she wanted to show it off to everyone tonight. Who could blame her though? The ring was beautiful. It was a gold band and on it, it had one large diamond that was surrounded by two smaller saphires. Jason knew Daisy loved saphires so couldn't resist having them in the ring.

Jason walked back into sight, now completly dressed and looked over to the clock. They only had a couple of minutes before they were suppose to be in the lodge. Shelby messed with her make-up and hair again while Jena played with Jason; he was picking her up and putting her on the bed then tickling her.

Daisy walked over next to Shelby and nudged her. "Relax. You look great." She said.

Shelby smiled. "Come on. We should be going." She said.

They all walked out of the cabin and towards the lodge. They passed the other couple on the way. Juliet and Auggie walked up next to the group and Juliet smiled.

"This is like a high school reunion," Juliet said and sounded happy.

"And what part of that is a good thing?" Shelby asked.

Juliet walked up next to Shelby and put her arm around Shelbys shoulder. It was weird since the girls were never really close.

"Shelby, you should be happy about this. You're finally seeing the father of your baby again." Juliet said and sounded kind of sneaky.

At that, Shelby froze and stopped Juliet and everyone.

"You know?" Shelby asked surprised than glanced at Daisy and Jason to blame but they looked just as shocked as she was.

"Well I wasn't for sure until now but I thought it. I mean, come on, Shel. Do the math. But before I saw your reaction right now, it was just speculation for the two of us." Juliet said simply.

"'the two of us'?"

"Me and Auggie."

"Right." Shelby started and shook her head before continueing, "Just don't tell him, okay? If anyone tells him, I want it to be from me."

Juliet and Auggie raised there right hands as if doing some kind of scouts honor. Shelby just smiled at the two of them.

They continued to walk until they walked into the lodge. Once in, they saw how wonderful in wwas decorated. There were streamers and balloons all over and one could see over a hundres students dancing. There was a table set up for refreshments and then there was also one with a bunch of wedding pictures on it from Sophie and Peters wedding.

Jena immedietly dragged Jason by the arm and went to the dance floor and started to dance. She definetly wasn't shy.

Shelby chuckled and then heard the door open. She turned around and saw Scott walk through the door. He was followed by David with Michelle and Ezra but she only carred about Scott. Her breath cought in her throat as she struggled to breath again. He looked great! The blue looked wonderful on him and that smile, oh that smile is the type that could make Shelby go weak in the knees. Her eyes blinked and she came back to reality.

Shelby saw Daisy and Juliet looking at her with grins dancing across their faces and she could do nothing but smile and blush.

David just put Michelle in a little section Katherine had set aside for the three kids to play in. Jena could go in if she wanted to but right then, there was only Chris and Michelle in there. Jena was still dancing. That was a trait she definetly didn't inheret from her mother. Shelby never really was much of a dancer. The only person who could ever get her to dance was Scott.

Scott, David and Ezra walked over by Auggie and Peter and tried really hard to ignore the marriage talk that was going on. Juliet and Sophie had already been married so they were both talking to Daisy about their weddings and about what Daisy was thinking for hers. Shelby, on the other hand, really didn't have much imput on the conversation.

A slow song came on and all the couples went to the dance floor. Jena went to the area for the kids while Jason and Daisy danced. Ezra and David were just being complete fools and started to dance with each other as a joke and then stopped and asked two senior girls to dance.

Shelby sighed and looked over at Scott and they saw themselves looking at eachother and then they both looked away. They smiled and then Scott walked over towards Shelby. He put his hand out to her, asking to dance but she smiled and shook her head.

"If you're lucky, you'll get the next one." Shelby said teasing.

Scott chuckled. "I guess I better be a good boy then." Scott replied, also teasing.

They both continued to smile and then Shelby looked over to Jena and Scott followed her gaze. He watched Jena and couldn't help but think how much she looked like his mother. He looked to Shelby and thought about asking about who the father was but didn't.

Shelby cought him looking at her and she did that coy smile she does and asked, "What?"

Scott shook his head, "Nothing. Just admiring."

Shelby couldn't keep a smile off her face. She looked down and couldn't stop herself from blushing. The butterlies in her stomache were flapping around like crazy. Shelby bit her bottem lip, which she happened to do when she was nervous, and looked up at Scott. They both chuckled as they looked at eachother and then turned away.

They both thought to themselves, _Damn Butterflies._

_

* * *

_

(**A/N**)- First off, thank you to everyone who has been so supportive through out this fic so far! I really hope you've been enjoying it. I know this chapter still doesn't have all the drama you guys are looking for but I'm getting there. Be patient and you'll get it.


	4. I'll Be

Shelby shook her head and went back to watching everyone dance. Yet another slow song came to a stop and another fast one came on and right at that moment, Jena was back on the dance floor. Jena looked over and saw Shelby just standing there and she ran over to her.

"Mommy, come dance with me." Jena pouted to her mom.

"Honey, you know I don't dance." Shelby responded, trying to sound gentle.

"But I'm all alone" Jena was trying to guilt Shelby into dancing.

Before Shelby could say another word, Scott spoke up and said, "I'll dance with you. After all, your mom won't dance with me."

Shelby looked to Scott and then back to Jena and saw Jena smiling. She didn't know Scott yet alone knew he was his father but she was happy if she got someone to dance with. Jena didn't wait for an answer before she grabbed Scotts hand and dragged him as much as a 5 year old could drag someone Scotts size to the dance floor. The two just started to have fun with eachother. Scott would pick her up and swing her and Jena got the biggest kick out of that.

Shelby smiled and just thought about how this could've happened so much sooner if she hadn't been so scared. Shelby kept asking herself why she ran away so many years ago and couldn't think of a good excuse. Yes, she was scared about how Scott would deal with it but that's not excuse for keeping a man from his daughter. They smile faded from her face as she thought about how stupid she had been.

Another slow song came on and Jena once again walked back to area that was set aside for the kids. Jean was never much for dancing to slow songs, she just liked fast ones. Since Scott was now by himself again, he walked back over to Shelby and once again put his hand out asking her to dance.

Shelby tried to resist but she looked into his beautiful blue eyes and just couldn't say 'no'. Shelby raised her hand to meet his and she followed him onto the dance floor.

They moved very close to eachother as they put there arms around one another and started to move slowly with the song. Shelbys head was resting on Scotts chest and she breathed in his sent. It wasn't just his cologne, it was his laundry detergent, his skin, his hair, just flat out him. She smiled and relaxed herself against him.

Shelby tried to pull him closer but it was impossible, they were as close as they could be. Shelby wanted to be closer though, she wanted to run her hands down his chest and through his hair. She wanted to be lost in kisses from him again; to just be lost in him. Shelby closed her eyes and imagined them together again.

Scotts hands were touching the smooth silk of her shirt and softness of her blonde hair. She closed his eyes and wanted to capture this moment. he breathed in the scent of her shampoo and of her perfume. She smelled like some wild flower that he couldn't put his finger on but knew he loved it.

Scott has dreamed about this moment for so long. The moment where he could have Shelby in his arms again. To hold her and to love her. He never wanted this moment to end. He always wanted to be with her.

"I'll Be" by Edwin McCain was playing and the two listened to the lyrics of the song and felt the butterflies calm in their stomachs.

_The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful stop me and steal my breath. Emeralds from mountains and thrust towards the skies never revealing their depth. _

_Tell me, that we belong together. Dress it up with the trappings of love. I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips. instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above. _

_I'll be your crying shoulder. I'll be love suicide. I'll be better when I'm older. I'll be the greatest fan of your life. _

_Rain falls angry on the tin roof as we lie awake in my bed. You're my survival. You're my living proof my love is alive and not dead. _

_Tell me, that we belong together. Dress it up with the trappings of love. I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips. instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above. _

_I'll be your crying shoulder. I'll be love suicide. I'll be better when I'm older. I'll be the greatest fan of your life. _

_I've dropped out, burned up and fought my way back from the dead. Turned in, turned on, remembered the thing you said _

_I'll be your crying shoulder. I'll be love suicide. I'll be better when I'm older. I'll be the greatest fan of your life. _

"This song's true, you know." Scott whispered to Shelby and she moved to look at him before he continued, "At least it is for me with how I feel about you."

Shelby couldn't keep a smile off her face and she fought back tears only this time, happy ones. Shelby rested her head back on Scotts chest and they continued to dance, holding eachother close.

* * *

(**A/N**)- Again, not the drama all of you are looking for but that's in the next chapter. This one is just a really cute, song-fic type thing that I wanted in so I added. I hope you enjoy. Next chapter's gonna be very dramatic. 


	5. Finally

Scott moved slightly which made Shelby open her eyes and look up at Scott with a smile on her face.

"What?" She asked softly.

Scott didn't reply with words. He simply took her hand and practically forced her to follow him out of the lodge. Shelby would've followed him had he not been pulling her but the pulling her showed how much of a rush Scott was in. They were outside and Shelby took a moment to look up at the sky which was lit up by stars but was distracted when Scott started to pull again.

Scott finally stopped when they reached his room and he pulled her inside and closed the door. Shelby was really confused. What was going on? Why was Scott in such a rush to get out of there?

"Sorry about being so pushy," Scott said.

Or in this case pulley, Shelby thought.

"But I didn't want to do this in there and by your daughter." Scott finished.

"Do what? Scott what's going-" Shelby started but was cut off by Scotts lips on hers.

His lips were on his and Shelby could tell that he had such need and he wanted this so badly. Truth be told, Shelby wanted it too. Shelby wanted to kiss back but forced herself not to. She knew that if she gave in now that she would never be able to get out again. She loved Scott too much and if she picked up that love again, she'd never be able to put it back down. Shelby pulled gently away and Scott looked at her kind of confused.

"You shouldn't have done that, Scott," Shelby said softly and looked down towards the floor.

"I know. But I wanted to," Scott replied and Shelby looked up.

The need that was in that brief kiss was showing in his eyes. Those wonderful blue eyes that seemed to make everything inside Shelby jump and be calm at the same time. Shelby couldn't deny Scott or her needs anymore. She smiled and stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed Scott again.This time, neither of them pulled away.

There lips were locked in the kiss with there mouths opening, welcoming eachother. Shelby's hands were running through Scotts soft blonde hair and the kiss deepened. There tongues were rubbing one another's and Scott was pulling them over towards his bed. Once there he feel back and Shelby was on top of him on the bed.

Scott had his hands on Shelby's waist and he pulled her shirt over her head which was the only time their mouths separated. Scotts shirt was already unbuttoned and he leaned up a little so Shelby could throw his shirt aside like he did with hers. She was still on top of him, straddling his waist and itching for more.

Scott pulled away for a second and the two just looked into eachothers eyes. They shared a look that said that they both have been wanting this, craving this, needing this since the last time they were together nearly six years ago.

Scott suddenly felt a pain in his stomach. He loved Shelby with all his heart and on some level always would but thinking about how much he's wanted this for so long, he came to a realization to just how long it actually was.

When Shelby wasn't there with him, the days seemed like they were months but once he was in her presence again, it was like none of that mattered. They were together again and that was it.

But that wasn't it. Scott couldn't forget how long he was without her. Without knowing where she was, why she left, or if she was even OK. Scott let out a deep breath and closed his eyes. He almost cried but fought back tears. All that time without her. All that time wondering. He couldn't do this. He had to know why. Why was he left all those years ago? Why did she leave?

"I can't do this," Scott said softly.

Shelby didn't understand and she let out a breath of shock. Shelby got off of Scott but couldn't find where Scott had thrown her shirt so was left standing there in a short black skirt and bra.

"What do you mean you can't do this? What happened?" Shelby asked in utter confusion.

Scott closed his eyes again. He didn't know how to answer that question. How does one tell someone that they couldn't be with them because they loved them too much?

Shelby moved close to Scott and touched the side of his face which made him open his eyes and look to her.

"Scott, what's wrong?" Shelby asked and looked down before continuing softly, "Do you even still love me?"

"Of course I love you, Shelby." Scott replied in a voice that said that he did.

"And I love you so what's the problem?"

"You love me?" Scott asked with the first flicker of anger in his voice.

"Yes, I love you."

"Then why did you leave me?" Scott retorted with the anger and hurt inside of him only growing.

Shelby looked away. That was why she didn't want to come back. That was why she had been dreading this weekend. That very question.

"Scott..." Shelby said and reached up to touch Scotts face again but he moved away.

"No. Answer me. After almost six years, I think I deserve an answer. Six years, Shelby. For six years I worried about you, wondered what I did wrong that caused you to leave. And I never got an answer. Now's my chance to get one." Scott had more hurt in his voice now than anger.

Shelby had tears swelling her eyes and she was beginning to loose the battle of not letting them fall.

"Scott," Shelby started but didn't really have an answer.

Shelby thought to herself, Why did I leave him? I loved him. Yes, she loved him but she didn't know how he would react to her being pregnant. She didn't even know how she was going to react. Shelby just didn't know what to do that night. So what does she do when she can't handle something? She runs from it. Shelby ran because she was scared, she didn't even know what she was scared of.

"Just answer me with the truth," Scott said sternly, knowing that Shelby was thinking of what to say.

"I was scared." Shelby said softly as if not wanting to admit it.

"Scared?" Scott asked startled.

"Yes," Shelby spoke even softer.

"Of what? What have I ever done that made you scared enough to run from me?" Scott said anger flowing in his voice again.

"It wasn't just of you, Scott. I was just scared of everything that night-myself, you, my family, my surroundings, just everything." Shelby was speaking at a normal tone.

"So you run away from me and get yourself knocked up!"

"I didn't get pregnant after I left you."

"So. What? You ran from me because you were cheating on me and got pregnant with some guys kid!"

"No! God! You don't get it!" Shelby screamed.

"Then explain it, Shelby. 'Cause I really don't know what I'm supposed to be getting right now!" Scott retorted.

"I ran away because I was pregnant with Jena and I was scared of how you would react. It's stupid but that's the truth." Shelby was trying to make her voice sound calm but a trace of something like anger was still in it.

"You were scared because you were pregnant with some other guys kid." Scott made it a statement.

"What makes you think that Jena is automatically someone else's?"

Scott looked to Shelby and the look said that he was obviously thinking about Shelby had just said. Scott blinked a couple of times as he realized what Shelby meant. Jena wasn't come random guys kid, she was his own.

"That's right, Scott. Jena's yours." Shelby said and finally pulled her shirt on over her head. The argument was strange enough without her standing there with no shirt on.

Scott let out a breath and it sounded like he was holding it in for hours and closed his eyes. A strange look came across Scotts face; a look that Shelby has never seen on him before; a look of pure anger.

"I have a daughter and you never told me!" Scott said through clenched teeth.

Shelby didn't have anything to say so she just looked down.

"How could you never tell me, Shelby! How! For six years I was left thinking that I did something wrong that made you leave and now I finally-" Scott stopped himself and took a breath to try and calm himself and then continued, "Now I finally found out that it was your fault."

Scott closed his eyes and a tear fell from one of them.

"Scott," Shelby started but was cut off my Scott.

"Just go, Shell." Scott said as his eyes opened.

The look in Scotts eyes made Shelby want to just break down and cry from guilt. She kept his daughter from him and never even told him that she existed.

Shelby wanted to say something to help ease Scotts pain and lift her guilt but what could she say? Nothing. There was absolutely nothing Shelby could say to make either of them feel better. She screwed up. And now after almost six years, Scott finally knows that. He finally knows the truth behind her leaving him.

Shelby didn't know what to do so just did was Scott told her to do. She left.

* * *

(**A/N**)- Drama. Drama. Drama. I hope you enjoyed it. The next chapter will be up soon...I hope. 


	6. Dying Inside

Shelby walked back into the lodge and one could see that she had obviously been crying. She wasn't physically hurt or anything. It wasn't like Scott had hit her. But she couldn't get rid of that feeling in her stomach: guilt.

It was an evil emotion. Shelby felt like she was going to be sick but she controlled herself. She looked around the lodge for Jena to take her back to their cabin but Daisy walked up to her before she spotted Jena.

"What happened?" Daisy asked with concern.

Shelby shook her head and another tear rolled down her cheek.

"I told him." Shelby said fighting more tears.

Shelby didn't have to explain. Those three words explained everything.

Daisy pulled Shelby into a hug and stroked her head. Shelby just broke down. She started to cry even more and couldn't stop the tears falling from her eyes. Daisy felt so helpless. There was nothing she could do to help Shelby. This was something that only time would heal. Daisy tried to be mad at Scott for hurting Shelby like this, for not understanding, but she couldn't. As much as Daisy hated to admit it, she saw where Scott was coming from. Shelby kept his daughter from him for over 5 years.

Shelby pulled away from Daisy and looked at her but wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I have to get out of here. I can't stay here. I have to just take Jena and go." Shelby said in a kind of panicked voice.

"No. I'm not going to let you just leave like that, Shelby." Daisy responded.

"I can't stay here; by him."

Daisy grabbed Shelby shoulders and made her look her in the eyes.

"Shelby, you can do this. Okay? You're going to be fine. You're strong. Just give Scott some time to get over the shock of it. I mean, it's hard for someone to find out they have a daughter." Daisy said trying to comfort Shelby.

"I don't want Jena to have to worry about this." Shelby said softly.

"Jena will be fine. She can stay with me and Jason tonight. I'll have Jason grab the mattress from you're cabin and put it in ours. We'll deal with her tonight while you deal with yourself."

"I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking me to do anything. I'm offering."

"Thanks. I'm gonna just say good-bye to her now then."

"Okay. Take Jason with you now to grab the mattress then."

Shelby nodded and walked on to the dance floor by Jena and Jason and she pulled them both aside. She looked down to Jena and kind of squatted down to be the same height as her. Jena wiped a couple of tears off of Shelby's cheeks with made Shelby smile.

"What's wrong, mommy?" Jena asked.

"Don't worry about it, sweety. I'll be okay. Hey, what do you think about staying the night with Daisy and Jason tonight?" Shelby asked and tried to sound kind of happy as if nothing was wrong.

Jena knew that something was obviously wrong with her mom. She hugged Shelby which made Shelby nearly cry again but this time tears of joy. Jena pulled away from the hug and smiled to Shelby.

"If it will help you, I'll stay with Auntie Daisy and Jason." Jena said and sounded so much older than she actually was.

"I actually think you'll benefit from this more than I will, sweety." Shelby responded with a fake smile.

Jena looked confused as to what Shelby was talking about but ignored it. She just hugged her mom again.

"I love you, mommy." She said while still hugging her.

Shelby smiled and squeezed Jena tighter and then said, "I love you too, baby."

They both pulled away from the hug and Shelby stood up strait again.

"Why don't you go by Daisy while I take Jason to take your bed into their cabin, okay?" Shelby asked.

Jena nodded and walked over by Daisy, who picked her up in her arms. Shelby looked to Jason and started walking and he followed her.

* * *

"So you told him?" Jason asked once they were inside Shelby's cabin.

Shelby turned around and nodded.

"And I'm guessing he didn't take it well." Jason said.

"No at all. It was weird though. We were sitting there on his bed, making out and then he just stopped and asked why I left." Shelby said.

"And that's when you told him about Jena."

"Kind of. I told him it was 'cause I was scared which is true. And then he brought up how he thought I got pregnant right after I left and I told him I didn't. Then he thought I was cheating on him so I told him that Jena was his and like you said, he didn't take it well."

"That's understandable. I'm not saying what he said to you that hurt you so bad was right. But, Shelby, you kept his daughter from him. You even kept that he had a daughter from him for nearly six years. If someone did that to me, I don't care how much I may love the person, I would be pretty pissed off too."

"I know. He has every right to be mad at me. And that's what makes this so damn hard. I know I screwed up and he has no idea how guilty I feel about it. I was just so scared." Shelby said as she started to cry again.

"I get that, Shelby. But you have think of this from his point of view." Jason said sympathetically.

"I know but I can't. All I can think about now is that look in his eyes. He was so mad and so hurt. That look alone almost made me fall and burst into tears."

Jason put his arm around Shelby in a friendly, comforting way.

"I can't imagine how guilty you feel right now. You probably feel like you should just curl up in a ball, hide and never come back out. But you can't do that, Shel. You have too many people who need you to be there for them." Jason said.

"That is exactly what I want to do. I've always been the strong one. I've always been able to deal with my problems and emotions but right now all I feel like doing in dying!" Shelby was struggling to keep her words clear through painful sobs.

Jason moved his arm away from Shelby and forced her to look at his face.

"Be that strong person again, Shel. I know she's still in there deep down, fighting to get to the surface. Just be who you always are; always were. Guilt is an evil and painful emotion but it can only get to someone if they let it. Don't let it. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time. You have nothing to be sorry about. Yes, you should have told Scott but don't let that get to you. We're all entitled to make some mistakes. So cry it out tonight while me and Daisy have Jena but tomorrow, don't let him get to you anymore." Jason said to Shelby as she gazed into those emerald green eyes.

"I'm definitely going to cry tonight. The not letting him get to me come tomorrow is going to be the hard part." Shelby replied with a faint smile.

Jason stood up and grabbed one end of the mattress. He tried to carry it by himself and it wasn't the weight that was making that difficult, it was the size of it. Shelby stood up and grabbed the other end of the mattress and helped Jason carry it to the cabin next door. The put it on the floor and Jason put Jenas pillow and blanket on the mattress too.

Shelby turned to leave but she stopped and looked back to Jason. Her face was still red from when she was crying but she smiled to Jason and said, "Thanks."

The only response Shelby got was a smile and a nod from Jason. Shelby and Jason weren't extremely close but Jason had a talent at seeing and knowing what people need. Jason always knew how to comfort Shelby in a big brother type of way.

Shelby walked back into her cabin and closed the door. She took off her shoes and her clothes and changed she changed into a pair of blue pajama pants with monkeys and bananas all over them with a white tank top that had a big monkey holding on a banana on it. Shelby loved these pajamas.

Shelby walked over to and sat on her bed after brushing out her hair. She grabbed one of the pillows and hugged to herself. She cried, like she knew she would and couldn't stop the tears from coming.

Jason's words had helped Shelby greatly but she still couldn't get rid of that feeling in her stomach. A feeling that made her sick to her stomach. A feeling that made her cry her eyes out. A terrible feeling of guilt. She couldn't get rid of it. Scott was right. Shelby shouldn't have run away and even if she did, she should have at least told him about Jena.

Shelby let the painful sobs leave her mouth and didn't fight them anymore. She closed her eyes and literally cried herself to sleep, still hugging the pillow.


	7. I have a Daughter

Scott couldn't sleep at all. He was tossing and turning all night. He couldn't get the argument him and Shelby had out of his head. Scott kept thinking to himself, _I have a daughter._ He couldn't get that simple fact out of his head. He kept repeating it to himself over and over again as if he still didn't believe it.

Scott finally decided to stop trying to sleep and he got out of his bed. he walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. He was trying to wake himself up since he couldn't get any sleep yet was still tired.

Once Scott got dressed in a pair of jeans and a white, male style wife beater with a black, long sleeve, button up shirt over that he sighed and sat on the bed. Scott looked over to the time and saw that it was still 5:30 a.m.

Scott laid down on his back and looked up to the ceiling still thinking about Jena, his daughter.

"Jena is my daughter." Scott said to himself and even as he said it sounded strange to him.

Scott stood up and walked out of his cabin. He tried to clear his head by walking around the familiar place but couldn't get Jena and Shelby out of his head. Scott moved his hand through his hair and sighed with frustration.

When Scott walked passed Shelby's cabin he paused and looked through the window. He saw Shelby sleeping in her bed but he didn't see Jena anywhere. Scott watched Shelby as she slept and even though he was extremely angry with her right now he couldn't help but think of how beautiful she was.

Scott rubbed his eyes to stop himself from letting a tear fall as he thought, _Why didn't you tell me?_ Scott looked away and continued to walk around the grounds.

Scott walked around the grounds still and went down by the docks. Scott sat down on one of the benches and took in a deep breath. He needed someone to talk to. He needed to just get all of this out. Scott started to think of who he could always talk to and two names came to his mind: Shelby and Peter. He chose Peter since Shelby was the reason he was like this.

Scott walked towards the main office where he hoped Peter would be despite how early it was. Scott walked into the office and was greeted by Sophie.

"Hey, Scott. You're up early." Sophie said with a smile.

Scott nodded.

"Yeah. Uh. Is Peter in?" Scott asked obviously distracted by his thoughts.

"Um no. He went for a run. He should be in soon though. Is there anything I can do for you?" Sophie responded.

Scott shook his head still distracted.

"No, thanks. I just need to talk to Peter. Can I wait in his office for him?" Scott said and Sophie nodded.

"You know where it is. Go ahead." Sophie said and motioned him to go to his office.

"Thanks" Scott said softly and walked into Peters office.

He closed the door behind him and sat down on the couch that was in there. He tried to think about what he was going to say to Peter but he had no idea where to start. he just knew that he had to get this shock off his chest or he would explode.

Scott tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He needed to relax if he was going to have any success in this. Scott took in deep breaths and let them out slowly but that hardly helped.

Peter walked into his office and noticed Scott. As soon as Scott heard the door open he opened his eyes and lifted his head up. He looked over to Peter and Peter noticed immediately that Scott was thinking about something important.

"Scott. Sophie said you had to talk to me." Peter said as he switched into counselor mode.

Scott nodded and sat up strait.

"Yeah. Um." Scott started, "Do you know who Jenas dad is?"

"Jena? Shelby's daughter?" Peter said confused as to why Scott would ask that.

"Yeah."

"No, I don't. Why?"

"Well...I..Uh.." Scott couldn't get the words out. He didn't know how to say it.

"Scott just relax." Peter said. He didn't want to rush the words out of Scott but he knew that Scott needed to talk.

Scott took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Ya know how me and Shelby were dancing last night and then we left?" Scott asked trying for a different approach to the discussion.

Peter nodded.

"Well, when we left we went back to my cabin. And we, well, started to make out and stuff but then I stopped it." Scott said. He felt kind of weird talking to Peter about making out with Shelby but he knew Peter would understand.

"Ya know how I told you Shelby left with no warning after graduation?" Scott asked Peter and was starting to get confusing with the explanation.

"Yes, you told me that. You said you had no idea why she left." Peter said wondering what that had to do with what happened between them last night and with Jenas father.

"Well last night I thought I could get a reason for why she left so I asked her."

"Did you get a reason?"

"Yeah. And it's not exactly one I was expecting."

"What was the reason?" Peter asked.

"It was 'cause she was pregnant with Jena. She didn't know how I would react. And when she said that I thought that it was 'cause she cheated on me and was pregnant with another guys kid but, uh.." Scott stumbled his words but took another breath and continued, " Jena isn't someone else's kid."

Peters face relaxed as he realized was Scott meant: Jena was his daughter.

Scott let out a sharp breath and said, "I have a daughter."

"And you never knew that Jena was yours?" Peter asked.

Scott shook his head.

"I didn't even know Shelby was pregnant. Let alone that she pregnant with my child." Scott started as he ran his hands through his hair again, "She never told me she was pregnant. She never told me why she left. She just left. No warning; no note; no phone call or letter; nothing."

"Did she say why she left when she found out she was pregnant?" Peter asked trying to make sense of all of this.

"She said it was 'cause she was scared." Scott said and chuckled which seemed strange at the time but he just thought her excuse was so ridiculous. What did Shelby have to be scared of?

"Scared of you?"

Scott shrugged and said, "I don't know. She said she was scared of everything but I don't get that. Do you?"

Peter shook his head.

"No, I really don't."

Peter wanted to understand where Shelby was coming from but he just couldn't. She should have told him.

Scott stood up and started to pace around Peters office.

"So what am I suppose to do? I can't just abandon Jena now that I know she's my daughter. Even if Shelby doesn't want me to be a part of her life or anything I'm still gonna know that I have a daughter." Scott was starting get nervous. One could tell by his voice that he worried and truly didn't know what to do.

Peter walked over to Scott and grabbed his shoulders to stop his pacing. Scott could have continued if he really wanted to even with Peters arms on his shoulders, he could have just shoved them off but he didn't. The two men looked each other in the eyes and with a look from Peter, Scott instantly started to calm down.

Peter let go of Scott and they both sat down again.

"Did you talk to Shelby about this?" Peter asked.

"Oh you mean when I handled it oh so well last night?" Scott asked back with his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"OK so you flipped out last night. What did you do?"

"I told her to leave."

"Leave Horizon?"

"No. Just my cabin. I think she went back to hers but I'm not sure. I saw her in her cabin this morning asleep but I didn't see Jena in there."

"No. Jena stayed with Daisy and Jason last night." Peter said explaining that part to Scott.

"That explains why I didn't see Jena this morning." Scott said to himself more than to Peter.

"Wait. You looked in Shelby's cabin?"

Scott gave a guilty look and said, "When I walked past her cabin, I stopped and looked inside the window."

"Gotcha. You do have to talk to Shelby about this. You know that, right?" Peter asked.

"I know. I know. I just don't know what to say."

"Well do you want Jena to be a part of your life?"

"She's my daughter." Scott said.

"That's not an answer, Scott." Peter responded and crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you want Jena to be a part of your life?" Peter asked again.

Scott sighed and thought about that for a few moments before responding.

"Yes, I do. She's my daughter. I can't just forget about that." Scott said.

Peter nodded.

"Then talk to Shelby about getting joint custody. Or, at least, having visitation rights." Peter said.

"What if she doesn't want me to see Jena though?" Scott asked as he thought of the worst case scenairo possible.

"Talk to Shelby first. If she says 'no' then you can start worrying about that." Peter said.

"All right." Scott started and stood up, "Thanks for listening to me."

"Anytime, man." Peter looked at his watch. "It's almost breakfast time so why don't you go to the kitchen, I'll meet you there soon."

Scott nodded and headed for the door but paused when Peter called his name. Scott turned around and looked to Peter again as he gave him a stern look and said, "You have to talk to her."

Peter knew Scott didn't want to talk to Shelby but he also knew that he had to whether he wanted to or not.

* * *

(**A/N**)- I hate to have to do this but this will be the last update in both of my stories for about 3 weeks. These last few weeks of school are going to be hard for with tests and finals and writing is distracting me.Therefore, I'm taking a break from writing. I will start updating again once school is out. I'm sorry.


	8. An Unexpected Arrival

Scott walked into the lodge and saw Shelby. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black, v-neck T-shirt. Her blonde hair was simply down and it looked like she had no make-up on but Scott still thought she was beautiful. When he walked in she looked up quickly but looked away just as fast and went back to talk with Daisy.

"Thanks for taking Jena last night, Dais. I needed to be alone last night." Shelby said.

"It's totally fine, Shel. I told you I would be here for you and I'm going to be." Daisy responded.

"Daisy, do you ever think I'll be okay with this? The whole Scott being Jena's father thing?"

"Well, that depends..."

"On what?"

"Now that he knows, what are you going to do? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Are you going to let him see her? Are you going to tell her that he's her father?"

"Well, if he wants to see her I can't not let him. So then I'd have to tell her. But she's only 5 years old, Dais. How's she going to take being told that she suddenly has a dad?"

"She always had a dad, Shelby. She just didn't know who he was because of you." Daisy said.

"True. I'm afraid to talk to him though." Shelby responded.

"You have to, Shelby." Daisy said sternly.

"I know" Shelby said and sighed.

Shelby walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee. She sat down at a table and sipped her drink and sighed. She wondered what she was going to say when she finally worked up the courage to talk to Scott but before she could think of anything, Scott sat down at the table she was at.

"I'm trying to understand what you were thinking, Shelby. I really am but I just don't understand it so I'm not going to try anymore." Scott said.

Shelby looked up to him kind of startled but didn't say anything.

"All I do know is that I have a daughter now. And I want to be a part of her life. If you don't want me to then I'm not gonna force it or anything but I would like to be there for her." Scott spoke again.

"To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to want to be a part of her life." Shelby said softly.

"Why not?" Scott asked.

"I'm not sure." Shelby started and took in a deep breath before continuing, "I don't know what to do about you wanting to be a part of her life though. Scott, she doesn't even know you're her dad."

"Are you going to tell her?"

"I don't know." Shelby looked down. "If you want to be a part of her life then I guess I have to, don't I?"

"Do you not want me to be?" Scott asked with a hint of shock.

"I don't know, Scott. I mean, I do but It's going to be strange if you are."

"How?"

"Me and you. Together." Shelby spoke her words like they said everything.

"Look. I know we're not on the best of terms right now but it doesn't change the fact that I have a daughter."

"Or that I kept her from you for over 5 years."

"And that's exactly the reason why we're not on good terms."

"Don't you think I know that I screwed up!" Shelby retorted hotly.

"I don't know, Shelby. If you knew then why'd you do it?" Scott asked back.

Shelby responded by looking down at her cup of coffee.

"Um. Scott?" Juliet asked from the doorway between the lodge and the kitchen.

"This isn't a good time right now, Jules." Scott said.

"I can see that and I'm sorry but there's someone here to see you."

Scott looked confused.

"Did they say who they were?" Scott asked.

"No. But she's pretty. She's waiting in Peters office."

"All right. I'll be there in a minute."

Scott looked at Shelby and sighed.

"We'll talk about this later, okay?" Scott said.

"I'll just come with you. Kat's watching Jena right now so I'm free for a while. I'll come with you and then we can continue this." Shelby said. She wanted to get this talk with Scott over with.

Scott nodded and stood up. Shelby stood up, too. They both walked out of the kitchen and to Peters office in complete silence. When we reached the main office they noticed a new car there and Scott tensed. He swore silently under his breath and speeded his pace and walked into Peters office.

The person there to see Scott was a girl Shelby had never seen but Scott had obviously seen many times before and knew well for she greeted him with a brief kiss on the lips. She was short, about 5'3. She was pale with really dark hair and eyes; her hair was almost black and she had black/brown eyes. She was Shelby's total opposite.

"Anita. What are you doing here?" Scott asked surprised.

"Well I have the rest of the week off so I decided to come and see you." The woman responded.

"Oh." Scott responded and looked at Peter worried.

Shelby cleared her throat to remind Scott she was still real and hadn't been introduced to the person.

"Oh, Yeah. Anita, this is Shelby Merrick. Shelby, this is Anita Blake." Scott said and felt very strange.

"Hi." Shelby said and smiled warmly.

"Shelby Merrick? Your ex Shelby Merrick?" Anita asked Scott.

"Yeah that's the one." Scott said and faked a smile.

"Well, hello, Shelby. I'm Scott's girlfriend." Anita said and smiled.

Shelby looked to Scott and fought like hell to keep the anger, shock and sadness off of her face.

Scott chuckled nervously.

"How about we go to the lodge?" Peter suggested trying to break up some of the tension in the room.

"Good idea. I'm sure Scott and I can finish our discussion later." Shelby said trying to let the emotions not show in her voice.

"It's a very important conversation though, Shelby." Scott said.

"Yes, it is. But your girlfriend is here right now. Don't want to talk about that while she's around, now do you?" Shelby asked and emphasized on the word 'girlfriend'. She was also losing the battle of not letting anger show in her voice.

"No, I don't." Scott said softly.

"Oh. Don't let me intrude. If you two were talking about something important, please continue." Anita said trying to be nice but was also curious as to what the pair was talking about.

"No. It can wait." Scott pressed.

"Really, Scott, as long as you two weren't talking about getting back together or anything I'm perfectly okay with it."

Shelby and Scott met eachothers stare for a moment before they looked away.

"We weren't." Shelby said.

"Okay. So how about heading to the lodge." Peter said again.

"Right. I'll lead the way." Shelby said and started to walk out of the office and towards the lodge.

Peter grabbed Scott's arm and made him look him in the eye.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you are about to be in with Shelby?" Peter asked.

"I'm not sure I want to know." Scott responded.

"No, you really don't."

"Oh. I'm so dead."

"Oh, yeah" Peter said half joking, half serious.

* * *

(**A/N**)- Not my best chapter, I know. But it's going to get better again. Thanks for all of the reviews I've been getting. I'm happy you all have been enjoying this story.


	9. Scott's Girlfriends

Shelby, Scott, Anita and Peter all walked into the lodge. All of the old Cliffhangers looked at Anita curiously but it didn't seem to bother her. She just acted casual.

Everyone, but Peter, sat down on a couch and Anita was touching Scott as if she was showing off that she was with him. Shelby didn't like it but she tried to not let it get to her.

Scott stood up and started to walk away but turned around when both Shelby and Anita asked at the exact same time where he was going. Shelby and Anita gave each other strange looks but other than that acted like that was normal. Scott shifted his eyes, looking to both of the girls and smiled.

"I just need to go...talk to Peter real quick," Scott said. "I'll be back. Why don't you two get to know each other?"

Before either of the girls could protest, Scott rushed out of the lodge and over by Peter who was talking to Sophie.

* * *

Sophie gave Scott a look that said 'you're so dead'. Scott looked at Peter in a questioning manner, basically asking how much Sophie knew about what was going on. 

"She knows everything." Peter said answering the question Scott asked silently.

"So much for you keeping it quiet." Scott said.

"She's my wife. I can't hide things from her. Trust me, I've tried."

"Oh. I know. She's like a freakin' lie detector test." Scott said teasing Sophie.

Sophie jokingly slapped Scott's arm.

* * *

Juliet walked over and sat next to Anita where Scott was sitting. 

"Hi." She said with a welcoming smile. One could always count on Juliet to role out the welcome mat. "I'm Juliet."

"Hi. I'm Anita." Anita said, also smiling.

"So you're Scott's girlfriend?" Juliet asked.

"Yes. And partner."

"Partner?" Shelby asked from the other side of Anita.

"Yes. Scott and I are partners." Anita said.

"So how did you two meet?" Juliet asked.

"We met a few years ago actually; back when we were both still in uniform. We were both at the same crime scene and we ran into each other. Literally. We started off as friends and that lasted for a couple of years then when I got promoted to detective, we finally started dating. Not long after that, Scott was promoted to detective. Now we're partners." Anita said.

"Scott's already a detective. I don't know much about being a cop but isn't he a little young to get promoted? I mean, he's only 24." Juliet asked.

"Yes but he's good at what he does. Especially when it comes to rape and molestation cases. I never figured out why he's so good with those though." Anita blinked a couple of times trying to think of why.

"Well, I could probably answer that question but it's not my place to say to I'll just stay quiet." Shelby said, obviously liking that she knew about Scott's past and Anita didn't.

Juliet gave Shelby a warning look. Shelby only grinned in return.

"So Scott's a detective. I never would have thought he would want to be a cop." Juliet said quickly.

"Well what did you think he would want to be?" Anita asked.

"I'm not sure. He was always into football."

"He still is. He plays with a few other guys from work every weekend."

"Interesting." Shelby said, nodding slowly.

Anita shook her head.

"So, what do you guys do for a living?" Anita asked.

"Well, I'm a chef actually. I'm also the manager of a restaurant out by where I live." Juliet said.

"And where do you live?" Anita asked for no apparent reason.

"L.A."

"You're a chef?" Shelby asked in disbeleif.

"Yes," Juliet said slowly.

"Well then how do you maintain that figure? Keeping up with old habits?"

"No. I'm just more careful now. Besides, I have gained weight."

"It doesn't look like much to me, Princess."

"I was waiting for you to call me that," Juliet teased.

Anita shook her head, not knowing what they were talking about.

"What about you, Shelby? What's your line of work?" Anita asked changing the subject.

"I'm a photographer. I work for 415 magazine." Shelby said.

"415? That's a big magazine." Anita said kind of surprised.

"Yes, it is. It's a very demanding job. Especially when you have the boss I have." Shelby said with a smile.

"I know what it's like to have a demanding job," Anita said, also smiling. "And where do you live?"

"Chicago."

"So not that far from me and Scott. We live in St. Louis."

"How did you get here so fast then?" Juliet asked.

"Plane." Anita asked simply.

"Oh. So has Scott finally grown up?" Juliet said with a grin.

"What, you mean he wasn't always mature?" Anita teased.

"Not by a long shot," Shelby said. "He was mature, I guess. At least as mature one could expect from a teenage boy but he still-"

"-Had to grow up." Anita finished with a nod.

"Exactly."

"So. I know you two both met Scott when he came here but how did you guys end becoming such close friends with him?" Anita asked to both of them which made them both chuckle.

"To be honest, neither of us wanted to be just friends with him when he first came here," Juliet said with another chuckle. "Shelby and I didn't really get along with each other and Scott was one more thing for us to fight about. Since when Scott came here, he was still the jock, he went for me first because I was, basically, the prom queen. Little miss princess."

"Wow, Jules you're starting to sound like me when I describe you." Shelby joked.

"Yeah. But me and Scott didn't last long because I started to have feelings for my now husband, Auggie." Juliet finished.

"And I was still relentless trying to get with Scott but he finally came around one night and me and him were together ever since that. Granted we had some trouble along the way" Shelby said.

"Like you being sent home and then him leaving." Juliet said giving examples.

"And then you finally left for good after graduation," Anita said. "Right?"

"Right. But it wasn't 'cause I wanted to." Shelby said.

"Care to explain?" Anita asked.

"It's a long story."

"We have time."

"I'd rather not talk about that with you until I talk about that with him." Shelby said trying to dismiss the subject.

"Understandable." Anita said nodding and dropping that topic of conversation.

* * *

Scott looked over at the three girls talking on the couch. 

"I wonder what they're talking about." Scott said.

"That's an easy one," Sophie said. "You."

"Why would they be talking about me?" Scott asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well what else could they be talking about? You're the only thing they all have in common."

"That does make sense," Peter said.

"Great. Like I need my past girlfriends talking to my present one," Scott said sarcastically.

"Especially when one of them is the mother of your baby." Sophie commented.

"Thank you," Scott said giving Sophie a stern look.

"Maybe you should go over there and talk to them," Peter suggested.

Scott sighed deeply.

"Yeah. I probably should," Scott said. "Well. Here goes nothing."

Scott walked by the three girls who all glanced up at him.

"Oh. I stole your spot. Sorry. I'll get up." Juliet said and started to stand up.

"No, Jules. You stay. I'll go," Shelby said and got up. "It was nice talking to you, Anita." Shelby smiled and didn't wait for a response before she walked away.

* * *

(**A/N**)-Not very emotional or anything but I wanted Anita to talk to Scott's previous girls; especially Shelby. I also wanted to give a little backround info on how I made all the Cliffhangers grow up. Just to clear something up: 415 mag. is amag. that I actually swiped from Charmed. I just changed it a little. I wasn't originally going to put this chapter in--I was just going to skip to my next one but I felt that Shelby and Anita had to talk to eachother first so I wrote this. I do have the next chapter done and that will be added shortly. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please reveiw. I would like to know what everyone thinks. 


	10. Running Away

Shelby walked into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of water. A sigh left her dry lips as she saw Scott, Anita and Juliet talking. She looked down at her cup of water and forced herself not to feel jelous of Anita.

* * *

Scott stood up and started to walk after Shelby. He knew he was in trouble with her but he wanted to try and clear some of this stuff up with her. Anita stood up right after Scott and grabbed his arm.

"Where are you going?" Anita asked.

"I'm going to check on Shelby. We have to continue what we were talking about anyways." Scott said and started to walk again.

"What were you two talking about?" Anita asked and Scott stopped walking again.

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Uh...why don't you talk to Juliet? She's cool." Scott said and looked to Jules hoping she would comply."Can you keep her company for me while I go talk to Shelby?" Scott asked with pleading in his voice.

"Sure. You and Shelby have to talk about that." Juliet said showing that she knows what's going on.

"Did everyone know but me?" Scott asked with confusion.

"No. I figured it out yesterday before the dance."

"Oh. Whatever. I still have to talk to her about that."

"About what!" Anita almost screamed.

Scott looked to Anita and smiled. He laughed nervously and shook his head.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it. I'll be right back." Scott said and finally left without waiting for someone to stop him again.

Shelby looked up as Scott walked over to her. She rolled her eyes and walked away. She sat down at a table in the corner of the kitchen-a part that wasn't visible from the lodge. Scott followed her again and sat down in a chair at the same table.

"I'm sorry." Scott said.

"Irrelevant! What are you sorry for?" Shelby shot back.

"For not telling you about her."

"Yeah, well ya know what? You should be. How long have you been with her?"

"Almost a year."

Shelby scoffed.

"You're in a serious relationship with someone, a very nice someone if I might add, and you still did that last night?" Shelby asked referring to them being together the night before.

"I know. I screwed up by not telling you. I know that because I'm with Anita I shouldn't have kissed you. I know all of that," Scott said and struggled to keep his voice quiet. Scott continued after he got control of his emotions. "But I'm not the only one who has made mistakes."

"I know I made a mistake keeping Jena from you," Shelby started at a normal tone then continued very softly with. "And that I made an even bigger mistake when I left you in the first place."

Scott heard what Shelby said and he felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest; like he could finally breath after nearly six years.

"Are you saying that you wish you hadn't have left me?" Scott asked quietly.

"Of course I wish I didn't leave you, Scott. That was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Not just because I lost you but also because you now hate me and Jena doesn't even know who her father is," Shelby responded and then seemed very interested in her fingernails.

"I don't hate you," Scott said, "I could never hate you, Shelb. I love you too damn much."

Shelby looked up at Scott. Her eyes stared into his and she didn't see hatred like she thought she would; she saw love. It was amazing to her that after everything she did to him and him being involved with someone right now, he still loved her. Shelby looked away and down to her cup of water.

"How?" She asked more to herself than to Scott.

"How what?" Scott asked.

"How can you still love me after everything I did to you? I mean, I left you without saying good-bye-" She was cut off.

"-again," Scott said referring to when she went home when they were students and she didn't say good-bye.

Shelby nodded and continued, "again and I kept your daughter from you."

"I am still pissed about that. Don't think just because I still love you that I'm not angry about that 'cause I am. But, Shelby, I'm always going to love you," Scott said.

Shelby looked down again. She couldn't handle hearing this. The worst part was was that she knew exactly why she didn't like hearing this. She didn't want Scott to still love her. She wanted him to hate her for if he hated her, she would know that there would be no chance of forgiveness. She still loved him too much and wanted him back even though she thought she didn't deserve him.

A tear fell from Shelby's eye and onto the table and Scott saw it. He looked at Shelby with confusion and concern.

"Why are you crying?" Scott asked her.

Shelby looked up at Scott again.

"Why did you have to say all of that?" Shelby asked with pain in her voice.

"All of what?"

"That you still love me."

"It's true."

Shelby put her face in her hands and took in a deep breath. She didn't want anymore tears to fall.

"It shouldn't be though. You shouldn't still love me. It would be so much easier if you didn't," Shelby said to Scott but not making eye contact with him.

"Shelby..." Scott said and reached out to touch Shelby's face but she jerked away.

Shelby stood up and rushed out of the kitchen. She ran towards the wood. Shelby had tears streaming down her face and she felt like she could barely breath right now but she ran anyways. She ran into the woods until she was sitting on the ground, leaning her back against a tree.

She leaned her head back and rested it on the tree. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Shelby ran her hands through her head and let out a silent scream. She was so sick of doing the wrong thing; so sick of always running from her problems.

Scott walked back into the lodge and sat down next to Anita again. He listened in on the conversation Anita and Juliet were having about clothes but then just zoned out. Anita brought his attention back to reality when she touched the side of his face.

"Scott?" She asked and he jerked up and looked at her.

She gave him a confused looked and he shook his head.

"What?" Scott asked.

"I have to go. Captin just called and he needs one of us back there. And since this is you're thing here, I said I'd go back. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"No...uh... I mean, if captin says he needs one of us then he must really need one of us. Are you sure you don't mind going back?"

"Yeah. You stay here. He only said he needed one of us back."

"Did he say what it was about?" Scott asked.

"No. It's probably nothing huge. If it was really big he would be making you come home, too," Anita responded calmly.

"Okay. I'll see you when I get back then."

"Are you okay? I mean is whatever going on with you and Shelby dealt with?"

"It will be soon. Just go, Captin needs you. Wait. How are you gonna get there anytime soon. Come to think of it, how did you get here so soon? We live in St. Louis."

"I took a plane. I have a rental car."

"Oh. Okay. Will you be able to get another plane ticket so soon?" Scott asked.

"I don't see why not. If I can't then, I'll be back," Anita said and smiled.

She lifted up on tiptoe and kissed Scott. This time, he actually kissed back. It was a lot easier to do without Shelby being there.

"I'll see you in a couple of days," Scott said.

"Bye," Anita smiled. "It was nice meeting all of you."

Anita walked out of the lodge and Scott sat down. He sighed.

Peter sat down next to Scott and looked at him sternly.

"Did you talk to Shelby?" Peter asked.

"Kind of. We started to but then she ran off," Scott said and then off of a look from Peter he continued, "I will talk to her again. Relax."

"Fine. Don't waist too much time though."

Peter stood up and walked over to help a ridge-runner with his science homework.

* * *

Scott stood up and walked out of the lodge. He walked to his cabin but didn't go inside. He sat down on the steps that led up to the door and put his head in his hands. Without his knowing, Daisy came up and sat next to him without making a sound. Scott lifted his head up and jumped when he saw Daisy.

"Holy shit!" Scott said with total surprise in his voice.

Daisy couldn't help but chuckle and Scott joined in.

"You're getting better at that. The whole sneaking up on people thing. I mean, you were good when we went to school but now it's like you're a pro," Scott said with a grin.

"Why thank you!" Daisy said obviously pleased with herself. "But that's not why I'm here."

"I'm guessing you're here to talk about Shelby." Scott said as the humor leaked from his voice.

"Correct. I noticed you two were talking earlier and I'm just going to guess that it was about Jena."

"That depends on which time you saw us talking. Before or after my girlfriend showed up?"

"So that was your girlfriend? Strange..."

"How is that strange?" Scott asked.

"It's just, she was completely opposite Shelby," Daisy said.

"Anita's not _completely_ opposite Shelby...is she?"

"Well let's observe. Shelby has blonde hair while Anita has black. Shelby has blue eyes while Anita has brown. Shelby is tan while Anita is extremely pale."

"So? That's just by looks."

"Okay. So what similarities to they have? Don't even think of physical. Thinks of emotional. Do they like any of the same things? Act at all the same?"

Scott paused and thought about that for a moment.

"Well, actually, no. Not unless you count really not wanting to get on their bad sides," Scott said.

"Well one doesn't want to get on anyones bad side. Even Juliet can be hard to deal with if you're on her bad side," Daisy said.

"I guess you're right."

"And do you think that maybe you did that on purpose?" Daisy asked.

"Did what on purpose? Get involved with someone opposite the girl who broke my heart?"

Daisy nodded.

"I don't think so..." Scott drifted and realized that he basically did. He didn't want to be with someone like Shelby for it brought back too many memories. Scott shook his head and looked to Daisy. "You're too good at that stuff, Daisy."

"What can I say? I'm a very insightful person." Daisy smirked then got very serious. "Shelby still loves you, you know. She hated leaving you."

"Yeah? Then why did she?" Scott shot back.

"I don't know. But she knows that she made a mistake doing it. Scott, just trust me when I say that if she could go back and do it differently than she would." Daisy stood up and started to walk away.

"What...that's it?" Scott asked.

Daisy turned around and said, "Think on it, Jocko. Think back to what I told you when you couldn't deal with her problems before. It was a long time ago so think hard."

Daisy walked away and walked into her cabin leaving Scott with that.

Scott looked down and was so confused. Scott felt a couple of rain drops hit him and he heard a soft crash of thunder. Scott looked up at the sky and saw a bunch of dark gray clouds. _Great. Another one of Horizons wonderful storms,_ Scott thought and walked into his cabin.

* * *

(**A/N**)- It's not my best but next chapter will be fun. In case anyone was confused, Daisy is talking about what she told Scott in "Innocence" when he asked what Shelby wanted him to apologise for; let her know that her scars are okay with him. Please let me know what you guys think.


	11. The Storm

Scott was sitting on his bed thinking about what Daisy had said. He didn't understand what she was talking about when she said 'last time'. There was never a last time for something like this; he never had to go through this before. Then it hit him.

She was talking about when she couldn't deal with her problems and she said 'let her know that her scars are okay with you'.

_Her scars are okay with me!_ Scott thought. He knew he was lying to himself. I wasn't letting Shelby know that he didn't hate her for leaving. Yes, he was still mad at her for leaving but he understood why she had to do it...for the most part. There were still too many things about this situation that confused him but he couldn't bother himself with those things now; he had to get Shelby back.

_What am I thinking?_ Scott asked himself. He had a girlfriend. His mind was screaming at him that Anita is the one he should be caring about but all he could think about was how Shelby ran away from him earlier. His heart was telling him that he still loved Shelby.

Scott heard a loud crash of thunder. He stood up and looked out the window; it was pouring. The storms were something he didn't miss. Still, he owed them something; they were what got him and Shelby together in the first place.

Scott sighed and looked down.

* * *

"Where's my mommy?" Jena almost screamed.

Jena hated storms. Shelby was the only one who could ever calm her down during them and Shelby was no where to be seen.

"It's okay, Jena. Your mommy will be here soon," Kat said reassuringly and hoped that she wasn't lying to a little kid.

Kat looked around the lodge as she saw Sophie and Peter leading all of the students into the large room. Kat saw Daisy walk in and immediately felt some relief. Jena knew Daisy, maybe she could get her to relax.

"Daisy!" Kat yelled and motioned her to come over.

Daisy walked over with Jason following behind her.

"This was always one of the things I didn't miss," Daisy said to Kat.

Jason picked up a crying Jena and tried to relax her. He told her it was okay and rubbed her back. Jena was hysterical. All she kept doing was screaming for Shelby.

Daisy took Jena from Jason's arms.

"Jena, it'll be okay. The storm will pass," Daisy said trying to relax her even though she knew it was pointless.

"Where's mommy?" Jena asked again with more tears leaving her little blue eyes.

Daisy didn't say anything. She didn't know where Shelby was so she couldn't give Jena an answer.

"Shelby's the only person who can get her to calm down during a storm. Without Shelby around we're just going to have to wait until she crys herself to sleep. It should happen pretty soon," Daisy said.

"Are you sure?" Sophie asked from a few feet away.

"The only person who knows this kid better than me is Shelby. She'll be fine," Daisy responded.

Daisy held Jena to her as she continued to cry. The sobs were growing soft but they were still there.

Peter walked over to them and looked back and forth from Sophie and Kat.

"Okay, we need to get the rest of the students and then all of the old Cliffhangers in here. Katherine, I want you to get the trackers. Sophie, you get the wind dancers. And I'll get the old Cliffhangers," Peter ordered them.

* * *

Shelby was soaked. Her hair and clothes were drenched and she was freezing. Even worse: she was lost.

It's been so long since she wondered these wood mindlessly that she could no longer find her way back to the school. She didn't even really remember where she entered the wood from for she was so emotional at the time.

Shelby hugged her arms to herself and shivered. Her blue eyes glanced around and tried to look for something familiar but she found nothing.

Shelby looked up at the sky. She blinked several times form the rain was dripping in her eyes. She pointed towards the sky as if pointed her fingers to God, himself.

"Real funny!" Shelby said sarcastically above a normal tone but not yet yelling.

* * *

Peter nodded on Juliet and Auggies cabin door and Juliet opened.

"Come on. You guys know the drill," Peter said casually to the two old students.

"Yeah, yeah. We all gotta go to the lodge. Just like old times,huh Peter?" Auggie said.

"Yepp. That part of Horizon hasn't changed," Peter responded.

"And neither have these stupid storms," Juliet commented.

"The storms will never stop, Jules. Come on. I still have to get Scott and Shelby,"

Juliet grabbed her coat. They walked out of the door and Juliet let a small scream out for the rain was cold.

They walked into the lodge and Juliet and Auggie walked over by their old classmates.

Sophie and Kat walked in with the students and took off their wet coats. They walked over to Peter.

"I still have to go get Scott and Shelby," Peter said.

"Shelby's not in her room," Jason said.

"What?"

"She's not there. Me and Daisy walked past on our way here and she wasn't there,"

"Okay. I guess I just have to go get Scott then,"

Peter left again and was back in the rain. He ran over to Scott's cabin and knocked on the door. Scott opened it with his coat already on.

"I was wondering when you were gonna come and get us all," Scott teased.

"Very funny. Let's go," Peter said.

The two men turned and ran back to the lodge. They both wanted to get out of the cold rain and quickly as possible. They heard more crashes of thunder and saw a few bolts of lightening right before they walked into the lodge.

* * *

Shelby walked around in the woods, shivering. She rubbed her hands together to try and make friction so she could warm herself but it didn't help.

Shelby wondered how Jena was for she knew she got bad during storms. _Oh. I hope she's all right,_ Shelby thought to herself and continued to try and find her way out of the woods with no success.

* * *

Scott walked over by the fire and started to warm his hands. He moved and sat down on one of the chairs, putting his head in his hands.

"So that's everyone but Shelby?" Peter asked allowed.

Scott shot his head up and stood.

"What are you talking about, 'everyone but Shelby'? Where's Shelby?" Scott asked worried.

"We don't know. She's not in her cabin and Sophie looked the grounds for her but didn't find her," Kat responded.

"What? So she's lost?" Scott asked, getting upset.

"Scott, don't jump to conclusions," Sophie said.

"Scott's right. She probably ran off after their argument earlier," Juliet said.

Scott closed his eyes and thought for a few seconds. Shelby did run off after their fight earlier, maybe she did get lost. _But where did she run to?_ Scott questioned himself with frustration.

"Are you sure you checked all of the grounds?" Scott asked Sophie.

"Well I didn't go into the woods but other than that yeah," Sophie responded.

"Okay. That settles it," Scott said without explaining.

He grabbed his coat and put it on.

"Where do you think you're going?" Daisy asked.

"I'm going to find Shelby. It's my fault she ran in the first place," Scott responded and turned for the door.

Peter grabbed his arm.

"You know I can't allow you to do that, Scott," Peter said.

"I'm not a student anymore, Peter!" Scott retorted.

"There's not even a sure chance you'll be able to find her,"

"I found her before and I'll find her again!"

Scott swung open the door and ran out of it, heading for the woods.

"Scott!" Peter screamed and started to head after him but Sophie grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"No, Peter. Let him try and find her," Sophie said.

"What he can't?"

"Just trust him. Let him try,"

Peter looked down, sighed and nodded.

* * *

Shelby walked around in the woods, shivering still. She hoped someone would find her. _But who would think to look for me here?_ Shelby asked herself and felt oddly like Alice from "Alice in Wonderland".

All Alice wanted to do was get away from her life and when she finally did, all she wanted was to get back to it. That's how Shelby felt right now. She wanted to run away from her world and now all she wanted was for someone to find her and take her home.

Shelby continued to walk around, still trying to find her way out, and tripped over a stick. She fell over made a slight grunting sound while doing it. She moved herself off of her belly and sat on the wet ground. She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed in frustration.

"Could this get any worse?" Shelby asked.

* * *

Scott ran into the woods and took a flashlight out. He turned it on for it was getting dark now and he started to look around.

"Shelby!" He screamed for her but there was no answer.

Scott continued to walk through the woods, looking for her but couldn't find her. He turned the flashlight in every way, searching every place in sight with no success.

Scott was pushing branches out of the way and running as fast as he could deeper into the dark woods. He jumped over sticks, rocks and anything else that was in his way. Nothing was going to stop him from finding Shelby.

"Shelby, where are you!" Scott screamed with still no answer.

* * *

Shelby continued to walk around and was still hugging herself.

"Okay. It's dark, I'm cold, I'm wet, I'm dirty and I'm lost. Wonderful job, Shelby," Shelby said out loud to herself. She paused and thought for a moment before continuing, "And I'm talking to myself. Why don't I just add insane to my list, too!"

Shelby looked down and shook her head. She stopped for a moment and stood there, once again looking for something familiar but she had no luck.

Her head shot up as she heard her name being called and recognized the voice who was calling her; it was Scott.

"Scott!" Shelby screamed for him.

She was trying to find him but she had no light so she couldn't see well.

"Shelby!" Scott screamed and Shelby heard it.

"Scott!" Shelby screamed back.

Shelby finally saw his flashlight and a sense of relief came over her. He was looking around and still couldn't find exactly where she was but she saw him now so it was easier.

"Scott, I'm over here," Shelby yelled and ran towards him.

Scott turned and saw her running to him. He ran to her.

"Oh, Shelby!" He said relieved.

Scott pulled Shelby into his arms and kissed her forehead. He squeezed her so tightly and never wanted to let go. She returned the hug and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Without another word being spoken, Scott and Shelby turned to go back to the lodge. Scott still had his arm around Shelby's shoulder and she still had hers around his waist. They walked together out of the woods and Shelby never felt so happy to be looking at the buildings of Horizon.

The pair walked into the lodge and everyone crowded around them. Sophie pulled Shelby over by the fire and told her to warm herself.

Peter eyed Scott as he was taking off his wet coat.

"I underestimated you, Scott," He said.

"I told you I'd find her," Scott said.

Scott walked over to the fire, next to Shelby and they both sat there trying to warm themselves. The fire was helping but it wasn't enough. Shelby was still shivering despite the blanket that was now around her.

"Okay here is what's going to happen," Peter said. "Everyone's gonna stay in here for tonight. It's gonna be tight though so I need the trackers over here," He pointed to a corner. "The sun dogs over there," He pointed to another spot in the lodge. "The wind dancers over by the fire. The ridge runners over here," He motioned to another spot. " And the Cliffhangers by the back door. Let's go."

"Which Cliffhangers?" A young girl asked.

"What do you mean?" A guy asked her.

They were both Cliffhanger students.

"Well, aren't they Cliffhangers, too?" The girl asked pointing over to the old Cliffhanger group.

"Yes, they're Cliffhangers but they're not students. You guys are the ones by the back door," Peter said.

"Some things never change," Ezra said referring to how the Cliffhangers are always put by the back door.

Peter smiled to Ezra and then walked over to Scott and Shelby. It was silent over by the two.

"Okay you two, especially you Shelby, need to shower. Now I want you two go back to you're cabins and then come back here. Okay?" Peter asked.

Scott nodded.

"Okay," Shelby said. "Wait. Where's Jena?"

"She's asleep. She cried herself to sleep in my arms. She's in the play pen," Jason said from behind her.

Shelby nodded.

"Okay. If she wakes up tell her that I'll be back with Alice," Shelby said.

Jason nodded.

"All right. Come on you two. I'm walking you guys to your cabins," Sophie said.

"Ya know, we are big kids now," Shelby teased.

"Come on," Sophie said again with a smirk.

Scott grabbed his coat and offered it to Shelby but she wouldn't take it. He didn't like wearing his coat when she didn't have one so he didn't put his on. They walked out of the lodge and ran to their cabins.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off, Thanks for all the reviews for all of the previous chapters from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, andjessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story.

I'm not 100 happy with this chapter but I know I'm going to have fun writing the next chapter. Basically there will be more drama between Scott and Shelby and since my weekend time span is up for the story I'm going to think of a reason so they can't leave on time 'cause I still have more I want done!

Please continue to review and let me know how I do. And don't worry about hurting my feelings. If you have something bad to say, say it! I would really like to hear any opinions you guys have.


	12. Sexual Tension

Shelby walked into her cabin and before she even reached the bathroom, started to take off her wet, dirty clothes. She went strait to the bathroom and turned on the shower, making the water as hot as possible.

After she took all of her clothes off, she stepped into the shower and let the hot water beat on her back. A sigh left her lips. It felt so good to be warm. She ran her hands through her hair, getting it wet and watched as all the dirt came out of it.

She grabbed her body wash and put some on her loofa sponge. The sent of lilacs filled the air and she breathed it in. She loved the sent. She scrubbed her body clean. She grabbed her shampoo and poured some in her hand. Once again the sent filled the air, stronger this time, and she washed her hair. She then conditioned her hair.

After she was done she just stood in the shower letting the water hit her back. She closed her eyes and rolled her neck, hoping it would relief some of the tension but it did nothing. She stood in the shower wondering what she was going to say to Scott. He was her rescuer, yet again. She couldn't just say nothing.

Another sigh left her mouth as she turned off the water. She grabbed a bog, fluffy white towel and dried herself off slightly. She wrapped the towel around her slim body and walked out of the shower. She turned to look in the mirror and combed out her hair.

Shelby left the bathroom, into the main room, and searched for something the wear.

* * *

Scott was just getting out of the shower. He wrapped the towel loosely around his waste and walked into his room, looking for something to wear. He grabbed a pair of jeans and threw them on his bed. He put on a pair of boxers and discarded the towel then put on the jeans. He still didn't have a shirt on.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror and sighed. He had strange feeling in his gut; a feeling of guilt. He kept blaming himself for Shelby running, he thought it was his fault. It wasn't but he couldn't bring himself to believe that.

He thought about what she might say or do to him when they next saw each other. He was the one who found her, again. Would she thank him? Would she yell at him for he was the reason she ran? What would happen?

Scott rubbed his eyes and shook his head. _Stop worrying so damn much!_ Scott scolded himself mentally and went back to looking for a shirt.

* * *

Shelby looked at herself in the mirror again. She was now wearing a pair of beige tie string pants and a black v-neck T-shirt. Her blonde hair was still wet and hanging down to the middle of her back. She had no make-up on and just looked completely natural. It was nothing fancy but Shelby didn't care about being cute right now; she just wanted to be comfortable.

She thought back to what Sophie had said to her after she left her cabin.

"_When you're done, go to Scott's cabin, get him and then come back to the lodge,"_

Shelby was really dreading to the getting Scott part but tried to pretend other wise.

She put on a pair of black Nikes and grabbed a black coat that she brought with her. She was physically ready to go over to Scott's cabin, grab him and go back to the lodge but emotionally, she was a wreck. She had no idea what to say or do when she saw Scott.

She grabbed her portable DVD player and the "Alice in Wonderland" DVD and put them both in the black traveling pack. She took one last glance in the mirror and then left her cabin.

She ran to Scott's in the still pouring rain and knocked quickly on the door. He opened the door still wearing no shirt and Shelby suddenly couldn't talk. He motioned her to come in and she did but she still couldn't bring her voice to come.

She watched as Scott moved around the room. She could see his abs and every other muscle in his move as he moved. She swallowed hard and forced herself to try and stay calm but the sight of him made her go weak in the knees. Seeing him fully clothed was hard enough for her. She felt that seeing him in only his jeans was practically torture.

Shelby scolded herself mentally. She ordered her eyes to look away but it did no good; her blue eyes still watched him as he moved.

"Sorry about this. I'll only be a minute longer," Scott said and snapped Shelby out of her trance.

"No, it's okay. Take as long as you need," Shelby responded.

She leaned against the wall as she continued to watch him walk around the room. He grabbed a white, male style wife beater and pulled it on over his head. _Damn!_ Shelby swore silently and then bit her lip. What was she thinking?

Scott sat down on the bed and put on his shoes and socks. She stood up again and grabbed his coat. He turned to Shelby.

"Okay. I'm good," Scott said.

"Yes, you definitely are," Shelby said before she could stop herself.

"What?"

"Uh..nothing," Shelby said trying to safe herself some embarrassment. "Let's go,"

Before Scott could say another thing, she turned and walked out of the door into the cold rain again. Scott followed her, while putting his coat on. They both rushed to get to the lodge.

Once there, they walked in and took off their coats. Shelby quickly walked away from Scott before she did something or said another thing to him. She walked over to Daisy and she picked up that Shelby was rigid about something.

"What happened?" Daisy asked.

"Scott's a bastard," Shelby responded.

"No, he's not, We've met his father," Daisy responded, teasing.

"Very funny,"

"What happened?"

"He let me in his cabin when he didn't have a shirt on!"

"And the problem with that it?"

"I almost lost it," Shelby said and ran her hands through her hair. "He was so..." She drifted off, picturing him again then snapped back to reality. "And I think he did it on purpose."

"Why would he do that?" Daisy asked.

"To show me what I can't have. Well, can have but won't take,"

"And why won't you take it?"

"Well now my excuse is that he's taken,"

"And what was your excuse before?"

Shelby bit her bottom lip, glancing over to Scott quickly.

"I'm not sure," She said.

"You didn't have one. Now why won't you just screw and get it over with?" Daisy asked with a grin.

"Daisy!" Shelby lightly smacked her. "He has a girlfriend,"

"So what? There's enough sexual tension between you two to cut with a knife. Besides you need to get back in the saddle,"

"Okay. Subject change! How's Jena?"

"Still asleep,"

"Okay. Well I'm going to go check on her. You stay here and talk to someone else about getting back in the saddle," She said, walking away grinning.

Shelby walked over by Jena and as if on cue, Jena woke up.

"Mommy!" She said loudly and threw herself into Shelby's arms. "Mommy there was a bad storm and you weren't here and I wanted you to be here. Where were you?"

"Sweety, it's okay. I'm here now," Shelby responded trying to relax her.

There was a crash of thunder and Jena's hold on Shelby grew stronger.

"It's okay, sweety," Shelby said. "Here, you wanna watch Alice?"

Jena nodded and started to let go of Shelby.

Shelby grabbed the portable DVD player and put in "Alice in Wonderland." She started to play the movie and Jena started to watch it and relax.

Just when Jena was relaxed the power went out and she tensed again.

"Mommy!" She called.

"It's okay, baby. I'm right here," Shelby said reassuringly to Jena.

"Is she okay?" Scott asked from behind Shelby.

Shelby turned around and looking at Scott. She nodded for she didn't trust herself not to say something very bad.

"Peter needs to see all of us," Scott said and walked away quickly.

Shelby blinked a couple of times and thought about how strange Scott just was right there. She shook her head and forgot about it.

"Sweety, why don't you stay here and watch Alice? I'll be right back. Okay?" Shelby asked Jena.

Jena let go of Shelby reluctantly and nodded. She turned and started to watch the movie again.

Shelby stood up and walked over by Peter who was standing there with all the other old Cliffhangers.

"Good. Now that all of our visitors are here, I can tell you guys the bad news," Peter said. "The storm grew worse as you guys can tell with the power outage. There's no power anywhere in Agnus and trees are down all over the place. From what I've been told your leaving will have to be postponed until at least Wednesday."

"Wednesday!" Juliet asked, shocked.

"Ya know some of us have jobs, Peter," Ezra said.

"Important jobs," Scott said.

"And deadlines," Shelby added.

"I know. And I'm sorry. But there's no way you guys will be able to get out of here until at least then," Peter responded. "Even if the storm stops right now, it will still be a couple of days for the roads to be cleared. I'm sorry,"

Peter walked over to go helped a couple of sun dogs get situated.

"Okay. I'm fired," Shelby said and leaned on the wall.

"Your boss really that strict?" Auggie asked.

"Yeah. If I miss this deadline, I'm screwed. Unless I do some serious groveling,"

"At least I can just shut down the restaurant. I mean, I'm also the manager," Juliet said.

"Lucky for you. The captain's gonna kill me. He didn't even wanna give me this weekend off," Scott said.

There were many sighs and then everyone went their separate ways. Shelby went back over by Jena and watched the movie with her. Scott followed behind Shelby and leaned against a wall behind her and Jean. He watched them as they watched the movie.

* * *

Shelby turned around and realized Scott was there and smiled. She didn't know how long he had been there or why he was even there but she couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"How long have you been standing there?" Shelby asked.

"Just as long as you've been sitting there so about half an hour," Scott responded with a smile.

Shelby stood up and walked to stand next to Scott.

"So, I take it she likes this movie?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. This is her child hood movie," Shelby responded.

Jean started to say her vowels with the caterpillar and Shelby chuckled.

"I swear, thanks to this movie, she knows her vowels better than the names of family members," Shelby commented.

"Well that doesn't seem to hard considering that she doesn't know half of them," Scott said referring to how she hasn't met his side of the family.

Shelby nodded.

"Right. Ya know, I really am sorry about that," She said.

"I know you are. I just don't understand why you did it. Shelby, you had nothing to be scared of back then,"

"I know that...now,"

Shelby sighed and the two were silent for a few minutes as they watched Jena, their daughter, together. Shelby shook her head as she thought of how odd that sounded to her in her head.

_Our daughter?_ Shelby questioned herself.

She looked up at Scott and saw him watching Jena. She thought back to when Scott found her in the woods and how he had kissed her forehead. She smiled and looked down at the thought of it.

"Thanks," Shelby said softly.

Scott took his eyes off of Jena and they were cast to Shelby.

"For what?" He asked.

"Finding me," Shelby responded and looked up at him.

"Oh. Well it was my fault you ran in the first place so-"

"No, it wasn't. It was never your fault, Scott. It was mine. I was the one running from their problems."

"And I was your problem,"

"Scott!" Shelby said sternly.

Scott knew that tone of voice. He wasn't even going to try arguing with her anymore. She'd made up her mind and once that happens, there's no changing it.

"Well...you're welcome," Scott said, showing that he gave up the argument.

Shelby smiled and looked down.

Shelby and Scott were both leaning against the wall toward each other. They kept glancing at each other at different times and then their eyes met. They stared into each other's gazes and neither of them could keep that look out of their eyes; a look of pure love and pure need.

Shelby turned away slowly and walked away. She couldn't handle it. She knew that if she saw another look like that from him that she would give in; she'd give in to the very thing that she had wanted for so long: him.

Scott watched as she walked away and swore silently under his breath.

* * *

"Oh, I'm so going to kill that girl!" Daisy said having been observing the whole time.

"Tell me about it. If they don't screw soon, someone is going to choke on the sexual tension," A female student said from next to Daisy.

"How old are you?" Daisy asked, wondering if it was okay to talk about this to the girl.

"17," she responded.

"Okay. You're old enough," Daisy said and nodded. "But you see what I mean about the sexual tension! And she won't act on it,"

"Why not? That guy is so hott!"

"Can't argue that," Juliet said and walked over to get involved on the conversation.

"Hey, you're married!" Daisy scolded her.

"So? I still dated him," Juliet responded.

"True."

"Wait. you dated that guy?" The student asked.

"Yeah. Back when we were still students here. What's you name?"

"Holly," The student said.

"Hi. I'm Juliet,"

"I know. Peter introduced all of you guys when you first showed up,"

"Oh, yeah. That's right. Anyways, yeah I dated him. Then he got involved with that girl, Shelby. They had such a sweet relationship. They were, like, the perfect high school sweet hearts,"

"Well, what happened to 'em?" Holly asked.

"She got pregnant after we all graduated and she left him," Juliet said.

"The kid wasn't his?"

"No, Jena is Scott's kid. Shelby just doesn't deal with problems well. She tends to run away from them," Daisy said.

"And now he knows that Jena is his," Juliet said. "I swear, I don't understand why they don't just get back together."

"You met the reason why they don't 'just get back together',"

"You mean Anita?"

"Who's Anita?" Holly asked.

"Scott's girlfriend," Juliet answered.

"Oh. She's just a small technicality. If Scott loves Shelby and she finally give in to her sexual urges then they'll still hook up,"

The girls heard someone clear their throat loudly behind them and turned around. They were all looking at Peter who had his eye brows raised at them.

"I didn't do anything," Holly said quickly.

"I wasn't blaming you of anything," Peter said and looked at Daisy and Juliet. "You two on the other hand should know better than to talk about other people's sexual tension, as you call it, to one of my students,"

"Well, she noticed..."Juliet said, trying to sound innocent.

"Nice try. Why don't you two just stay out of Scott and Shelby's relationship? Maybe they don't want to get back together,"

"Are you kidding me? Peter, they're so hot for each other!" Holly said and then off of a look from Peter continued, "Okay. I'm shutting up now. You two are on your own,"

Holly walked away.

"You know she's right, Peter," Daisy said.

"I don't care. It's their lives," Peter said.

Peter walked away and left Juliet and Daisy looking at each other. Before either of them could restrain themselves, they burst into laughter as they thought of the conversation they just had with Peter of all people.

Once they calmed down they looked at each other with serious looks on their faces.

"Maybe we can help them get together," Juliet offered.

Daisy looked at her, curious about her idea.

"What did you have in mind?" Daisy asked.

Juliet grinned.

* * *

Shelby rushed into the kitchen poured herself a cup of water. It was still completely dark in there safe for one small light at the opposite end of the large room. She took a drink of her water and felt better right away.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She wanted that breath to calm her down and help get her mind off of other, more naughty things but she couldn't.

Shelby walked quickly out of the kitchen. She continued to walk fast, barely looking at anyone she past and ran right into Scott. They made eye contact for a moment and Scott smiled. He started to turn away but Shelby grabbed his hand and forced him not to.

She held onto his hand and lightly pulled him over to a corner of the room. She put her back against the wall and then lifted one of her hands behind Scott's neck and pulled him down into a kiss. She couldn't help herself. Scott kissed back.

Their mouths together seemed so natural. They opened to each other and Shelby let Scott's tongue slip into hers. Shelby pushed herself off of the wall and turned so it was now Scott's back against the wall. She continued to kiss him fiercely but then suddenly, he pulled away.

"Wait," He said. "Not here. Come on,"

Scott grabbed Shelby's hand and pulled her out of the lodge. They were once again in the rain but they ran quickly to Scott's cabin for it was the closer of the two to the lodge.

* * *

Juliet and Daisy watched as Scott and Shelby rushed out of the lodge. Daisy looked at Juliet with a smirk on her face.

"Maybe we won't have to do anything, after all," Daisy said, grinning.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off, Thanks for all the reviews for all of the previous chapters from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy ScottandShelbyfan and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story.

I hope this is a quick enough update for everyone. I had fun writing this chapter for some reason. I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As always, please review. If you hated this, tell me. If you loved this, tell me. I always like getting feedback.


	13. Giving In

I don't own anything! 

This chapter is for the **mature** audience! It's rated R for sexuality.

* * *

Scott and Shelby rushed into Scott's cabin and Shelby closed the door behind her quickly. She moved herself over to Scott quickly and pulled him down into another kiss. Scott picked Shelby up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Scott moved them over to the bed and fell backwards on to it with Shelby still on top of him.

Shelby pulled away from the kiss suddenly and got off of Scott's bed.

"I can't do this," She said softly.

"What? Why not?" Scott asked, confused.

"You have a girlfriend, Scott,"

"But you're the one I love,"

Shelby looked down into his eyes and saw the desire and love in them. She let out a breath slowly and then looked away, biting her lip. She looked down to him again and couldn't deny him. Shelby got back on the bed but didn't do anything.

Scott leaned over, put one of his hands behind Shelby's neck and started to kiss her again. The kiss wasn't fierce like the earlier ones; this kiss was soft and gentile and just full of love, not lust. Shelby kissed back as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss grew and became more passionate. Shelby opened her mouth and let Scott's tongue slip inside. She massaged her tongue with his and smiled to herself.

Scott moved his mouth away from Shelby's and started to travel down her neck. Her laid kisses all down her neck as he continued to move lower. Her shirt stopped him from going any further. He looked up at Shelby and asked with his eyes if he could take it off and she complied by sitting up and pulling the shirt over her head. Scott continued to lay kisses all over her neck and he moved down and started to kiss her belly.

Scott lifted his head back up and kissed Shelby on the lips again. Without Scott expecting it, Shelby rolled over and forced Scott to be on the bottom. She pinned his back to the bed and only let his rise enough so she could pull his shirt off over his head. Once the shirt was off she mirrored what he did to her and started to travel his upper body and lay kisses all over.

Scott grabbed Shelby by the back of her neck and pulled her up to his mouth and kissed her passionately again.

Scott rolled Shelby over and had her on the bottom again. He untied her pants and pulled them down her leg and left her in nothing but her underwear. Scott slowly un-hooked her bra and discarded it. Shelby tried to cover herself even though she didn't know why she was suddenly feeling shy around him but Scott grabbed her hands and wouldn't let her.

He held onto her hands with one of his and moved the other one down to one of her breasts. He rubbed his thumb over one of them and Shelby let out a soft moan and finally gave in to her inner desires. Scott felt her body relax under him and he let go of her hands, knowing that she wouldn't try and hide herself anymore.

Scott moved one of his hands down even further and took off her panties. Now that she was completely nude, Scott moved his hands in between her legs. He let his fingers enter her as Shelby shuddered under him. He smiled to himself. Scott continued the motion as Shelby let soft moans leave her mouth.

Shelby forced Scott to stop as she grabbed that hand by the wrist and gave him a look that said she needed him to. Scott reluctantly complied and rested his hand on her belly.

Shelby grabbed Scott gently by his neck and pulled him up to her so she could kiss him. He complied eagerly and kissed back but then Shelby pulled away quickly and forced his back onto the bed. She slowly un-zipped his pants and took them off with some help from Scott. Shelby played with the top of Scott's boxers and looked up to Scott with challenging eyes.

"My turn," Shelby said with a grin.

Shelby pulled Scott's boxers off, again with some help from him, and threw them to the side like she did with his pants. She wrapped one of her hands around Scott's shaft and started to stroke him. Scott closed his eyes and half moaned, half said Shelby's name. She continued the motion with her hand until Scott finally stopped her by grabbed her hand with his own.

Shelby looked up at him with raised eye brows and he only shook his head. He grabbed the side of her arms gently and pulled her up so she was next to him. He laid a soft kiss on her lips but pulled away before she had the chance to kiss back.

Scott maneuvered himself so that he was above Shelby now. They looked at each other with such serious looks; looks full of need and love for each other.

"I love you so much, Shelby" Scott said softly.

"I love you too, Scott," Shelby replied just as softly.

Scott looked at Shelby, questioning her if she was ready and she nodded.

With one swift movement Scott entered her. Shelby let out a soft scream as she got use to him being inside of her. Scott continued the motion as moans left both of their mouths.

Their bodies together felt so natural. With a few more movements and their bodies still together, touching one another, they both orgasm and moans left their mouths.

Scott moved to lay down next to Shelby. Shelby couldn't help but smile at what had just happened. She was so happy that she finally gave in and allowed that to happen. She looked down at her very revealed body and grabbed the sheet to cover herself up.

Both Scott and Shelby were out of breath and now sweaty. Shelby took her hand and tried to fan herself but stopped after a few moments when she realized it wasn't helping at all. Shelby realized that she needed another shower. _Great!_ She thought to herself sarcastically.

After several moments, Shelby could finally feel her lower body again. She stood up out of the bed and wrapped the blanket around her body and kept everything hidden from Scott's eyes. She started to half walk, half stumble towards his bathroom but stopped when Scott called to her.

"So you can have sex with me but you won't walk around naked in front of me?" Scott asked.

Shelby chuckled.

"Well, have the sexual history I have and you would do it, too," She replied.

"Well, where are you going?"

"To take a shower. I'm sweaty and covered in...stuff,"

"So am I,"

"Then maybe you need a shower, too,"

Shelby finally got the rest of the way into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She smiled again and leaned her back up against the door while still holding the sheet around her with one hand.

Shelby let the sheet fall to the floor as she stepped into the shower and turned the water on. She let a sigh leave her mouth as the warm water pound onto her back. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of the water.

Shelby finally opened her eyes after about 2 minutes of having them closed. The door to the shower opened and Shelby turned to see Scott standing in front of her completely nude. Shelby tried to cover herself up with her hands but it did no good.

Scott laughed softly.

"Why don't you like it when I see you naked? It's not like I haven't before," Scott said.

"I don't know. I just don't," Shelby responded, still trying to cover herself.

Scott stepped into the shower and grabbed Shelby's wrists so she would stop trying to cover herself. He smiled down at her.

"You're beautiful. You don't have to cover yourself," Scott said and moved around her so that he was now under the water instead of her.

"What are you doing?" Shelby asked.

"I'm taking a shower. You said I needed one," Scott replied with a smirk.

"Yes. But I meant when I was out,"

"This is my bathroom,"

"Well, did you want me to go to my cabin in order to take one?"

"No. I simply thought we could share,"

Shelby glared at him.

Scott closed his eyes, enjoying the water like Shelby did before him. Shelby couldn't stop her blue eyes from looking at him. She watched at beads of water traced along Scott's chest. She wanted so badly to run her hands and tongue over his wet chest but resisted the very strong urge.

Scott opened his eyes and looked at Shelby but she was completely oblivious to the fact that he was watching her watch him. Scott let a smile creep onto his face and chuckled softly.

The soft laugh made Shelby look up to him and she realized that he saw her watching him. She closed her eyes in embarrassment and moved Scott out of the way so she could be under the water again.

Scott watched Shelby as the water trickled down her body and a memory came back to him.

Flashback

_Scott and Shelby ran into a little one bed room apartment completely soaked. They were laughing and Scott was chasing after Shelby, tickling her. _

_Shelby screamed softly as she ran into their bedroom, still being chased my Scott. She turned around and grabbed Scott by his wet shirt and tossed him onto the bed. _

_Shelby grinned down at him and took off her shirt to reveal and a very tight black tank top that she had on under and tossed her shirt aside. Scott sat up and grabbed Shelby by the waist, pulling her down to him and into a kiss._

_Shelby pulled away and smiled at him. She stood up and went into the bathroom for a warm shower and gave Scott a look that clearly said she wanted him to follow. Scott jumped off of the bed and followed Shelby into the bathroom with a grin on his face._

End Flashback

Scott smiled down at Shelby and she opened up her eyes just in time to see it.

"What?" Shelby asked with a small smile.

"Nothing," Scott said and shook his head.

Scott poked his head out of the shower and saw that there was only one towel but two of them. Scott thought about them sharing it with a grin dancing across his lips but knew Shelby wouldn't go for it. He turned back to look at Shelby.

"I only have one towel in here so I'll be right back," Scott said.

He stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel loosely around his waist. He walked out of the bathroom and grabbed another big white towel that he brought with him. He came back into the bathroom and heard that the water was no longer running.

Shelby was standing there completely nude in front of him waiting for him to hand her the towel but all he could do was watch her. His mind was no longer processing anything but then Shelby clear her throat loudly and Scott snapped out of his trance. He handed Shelby the towel and Shelby smiled.

"Thanks," She said and wrapped the towel around her body.

Scott nodded and walked out of the bathroom again. He chuckled to himself and looked for clothes for him to wear. He grabbed a new pair of jeans and a plain white T-shirt.

Scott turned around and saw Shelby entering the room from the bathroom. She looked at him quickly but then looked down and walked around the room, trying to find her clothes that were thrown around.

Once she finally found everything she went back into the bathroom and got dressed. She doesn't know why, but she feels strange being naked in front of him. She's knew this was pretty stupid considering that they've just had sex and were in the shower together but she still felt apprehensive about it.

Scott got dressed quickly and added a black button up shirt over the white one. He was contemplating whether to button it or not when Shelby re-entered the room. He stopped messing with his shirt and looked to Shelby.

"We should probably get back to the lodge. People are probably looking for us," Scott said.

"How long were we gone?" Shelby asked.

Scott looked down at the clock and then back up at Shelby.

"Almost 2 hours," He said.

"Well, then my guess is, is that most of them know where we went and what we were doing,"

"Who would know?"

"Well, Daisy was talking about us and said that we needed to already so she probably figured it out,"

Scott blinked a couple of times and then said, "Well, then it's going to be pretty strange walking back into the lodge,"

"Tell me about it," Shelby said sarcastically.

Scott and Shelby both grabbed their coats and put them back on. They walked back outside and saw two things: that it was still raining and that it was getting lighter out which meant it was somewhere around sun rise.

They walked into the lodge and several pairs of eyes, including Daisy's and Juliet's, darted to them right away.

Scott and Shelby looked at each other quickly and Shelby had worry in her eyes for some reason. Scott grabbed her hand and entwined his with hers in an attempt to relax and reassure her.

Shelby smiled and felt her body relax at Scott's touch.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off, Thanks for all the reviews for all of the previous chapters from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy ScottandShelbyfan,Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

I could have gotten more detailed but I didn't want to get too detailed to the point where it was NC-17 but I hope you all understood what was going on. If not, I'm sorry, but then you're slow.

Let me know what you guys think of the chapter, please! Oh, and I'm very sorry that this chapter took SO long to get up.


	14. I Wanna Be With You

Shelby looked up at Scott and found that he was looking down at her. They both smiled. Scott squeezed Shelby's hand quickly and they both let go of each other. Shelby went over by Daisy and Juliet, who were both waiting for her, and Scott walked over to Peter.

"Well?" Juliet asked quickly.

"Well what?" Shelby asked, playing dumb.

"Don't be stupid! Tell us what happened." Daisy said, lightly slapping Shelby.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Shelby responded with a grin.

"Bullshit! You can't fool me." Daisy said with raised eye brows.

Shelby sighed and looked around, seeing if anyone was here and with in hearing distance.

"Don't be shy. I think we all figured it out already." Juliet said.

"How?" Shelby asked.

"You guys were gone together for almost two hours. Something was bound to happen."

"And you guys walked in holding hands." Daisy added.

"Well, if you guys figured it out already than what do you want me to tell you?" Shelby asked.

"We want you to confirm it." Juliet said.

"Why do you guys care anyways?"

"We just do. Now are we right?"

"Well, that depends. What do you guys think happened?"

"I think you got yourself back in the saddle," Daisy said with a smirk.

Shelby couldn't help but laugh. She didn't know why it seemed so funny for that was exactly what happened but just how Daisy said it was strange to her.

"I'm going to take it from that laugh that we were right?" Juliet made it a question.

Shelby smiled and bit her bottom lip. The other two girls knew what she meant by that: they were right.

"So is he as good as you remember?" Daisy asked with that same smirk still dancing across her face.

"Dais!" Shelby said with a grin.

"What? I'm curious."

"Well, if you _must _know than the answer is no." Shelby said and then off a look from Juliet, she smiled and continued. "He was better."

All of the girls chuckled.

* * *

Scott had dragged Peter away into the empty kitchen. He was, as always, asking him for advise.

"And then it happened." Scott finished the summing up of what happened.

Peter was giving Scott a look that clearly said 'whoa!'.

"I'm not really sure about what you need my help with, Scott." Peter said.

"I don't know what to do about Anita. And I'm not sure what Shelby wants to do about any of this." Scott said and sounded so lost.

"Well what goes on between you and Anita is going to be completely up to you. Shelby has so say in that part. Then, I suggest that you talk to Shelby about she wants to do with everything."

"I know this deal with Anita is all up to me but I still don't know what to do."

"Well, what do you want?"

"I want to be with Shelby."

"Then what are you going to do?" Peter asked.

"I have to end it with Anita." Scott said softly.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

"If the choice comes down between Shelby and Anita then I'm gonna go with Shelby."

"Scott, I can't help you with any of this. This is all you and Shelby. All I can say is that you should do what you think is right. If you think you belong with Shelby then end things with Anita, if you think you belong with Anita then talk to Shelby about what you two are going to do about Jena. Just make sure whatever you do is really what you want."

"Being with Shelby is what I want. I love her too damn much to loose her again."

Scott and Peter walked out of the kitchen and back into the lodge They were careful not to step on the sleeping students on the floor. Peter walked over to Sophie and told her some of what was going on for he could tell that she really wanted to know what was going on with their favorite couple.

* * *

Scott looked over to Shelby and saw her talking to Daisy and Juliet. Shelby looked towards Scott and they simple watched each other for several moments. Neither of them knew really how long they stared at each other or why they were even doing it but they just couldn't take their eyes off one another.

They both walked away from what they were doing and towards each other. Once they met Scott put his arms around Shelby's waist and smiled down at her. Shelby mirrored what Scott did and wrapped her arms around his waist as well. They stood, smiling, watching and touching each other. Finally they moved closer to each other but not so they could kiss; they moved closer to each other so that Shelby could rest her head on Scott's chest as they hugged each other.

They parted and looked up at each other, still smiling.

"What was that for?" Shelby asked, meaning the hug.

"I just needed you in my arms." Scott said and pulled Shelby into another embrace.

Shelby smiled again and let herself relax in Scott's arms.

* * *

"Did they use to act like this?" Jason asked, referring to Scott and Shelby hugging for no reason.

"Not really," Ezra said.

"Are you kidding me? These two love birds were always all over each other." David said.

"Yeah but they were always all over each other in a kissing way, not hugging."

"True,"

"They still were always a great couple though," Auggie said.

Daisy and Juliet walked over by the guys in the kitchen. Daisy walked to Jason and gave him a kiss and Juliet did the same to Auggie. Ezra and David, the two with out lovers there, looked at each other and gave the two couples with looks raised eye brows.

* * *

Scott and Shelby walked into the kitchen and poured themselves a cup of coffee. Scott took his black but Shelby added cream and sugar to hers. They were quickly followed by Peter and Sophie who both got their coffee as well. Peter liked his black and Sophie added cream and sugar. The girls looked at each other and then at the boys.

"How can you drink your coffee black?" Shelby asked.

"Why do you add stuff to perfectly good coffee?" Peter asked.

"Exactly, you guys ruin it," Scott teased.

"We do not," Shelby and Sophie said at the exact same time.

The two girls looked at each other and the two guys looked at each other. They all shook their heads and forced themselves to forget how strange that just was.

Scott and Shelby went and sat down at a table in the far corner of the kitchen while Peter and Sophie went to wake up the students. Scott and Shelby sat down next to each other and turned to each other. Shelby took a sip from her coffee as she saw Scott open his mouth to say something but changed his mind and closed it.

"Okay, how about I start then?" Shelby said.

"Huh?" Scott asked.

"You seem like you want to say something but can't figure out what so I'm going to start this conversation. I don't regret it, if that's what you're thinking."

"It wasn't" Scott defended quickly and then continued softly. "At least, not really. I didn't think you regretted it but I wasn't sure how you felt about it."

"Scott, it was wonderful." Shelby smiled.

"Yeah, it was." Scott smiled as well. "But it also complicated things a lot."

"I know," Shelby looked down and then back up. "What do you want to do?"

"That depends on which complication you're talking about."

"I was thinking Anita first, considering she's the lesser of the two."

"I want to be with you, Shelby. But I'm not going to break up with Anita unless I know you're not going to leave me again,"

Shelby closed her eyes when Scott talked about her leaving.

"Scott..." Shelby started but was at a loss of words.

"Shelby, I didn't mean to imply that that was your plan but I want to make sure that you want me as much as I want you." Scott said and touched Shelby's cheek with his hand which made her open her eyes. "Do you want to be with me?"

Shelby looked into Scott's eyes. She wanted to say something but couldn't. She thought that saying 'yes' would be too simple. Shelby leaned into Scott and kissed him on the lips, showing that she did want to be with him. She pulled away and smiled at him. Scott smiled down to her.

"I'm guessing that I can take that as a yes?" Scott asked with a smile still on his face.

"Yes, you can," Shelby said.

"Okay. The only request I have for you when it comes to me breaking up with Anita is that you're there."

"Are you sure that that's a good idea, Scott?"

"I don't care if it's a good idea or not. I want you there with me. I always want you there with me."

Shelby pulled Scott to her in another kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he put on of his hands to the back of her head and pulled her closer to him so that she was now sitting on his lap. It made the kiss deeper, stronger and if it was even possible more passionate. They forgot everything; they forgot where they were, who was around them, and anything else but that they were together.

"Mommy?" Jena asked as she watched her mom make out with Scott.

Shelby and Scott pulled abruptly away from the kiss and looked at their daughter. They looked at Jena, glanced at each other quickly and then back at Jena. They both smiled and chuckled nervously as Jena gave them both confused looks.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off thanks for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy ScottandShelbyfan,Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princessand jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

I know this chapter is pretty short compared to my usual chapters but I liked how I ended it here. I'm sorry my updates are coming along slow but I hope you get back on pace soon. Just a warning, this story will be ending soon. I know that's upsetting for some but there's good news, I'm writing a sequal to it. It won't end for a few more chapters but It will be ending soon.

As always, please review!


	15. A Weight Finally Lifted

Shelby quickly slid off of Scott's lap and back into her own seat that she was originally sitting in. Her eyes wanted to look at Scott but she refused to allow them to and kept her gaze fixed on Jena. Shelby had no idea what to do. She knew in her mind, deep down, that the day she had to tell Jena about Scott being her father would come but she had hoped that it would come much further from now, when she had thought of something to say and when Jena was much older. Shelby felt Scott's eyes looking at her but still refused to even so much as glance at him.

"Mommy?" Jena asked again, her gaze switching from Scott to Shelby.

Shelby put on her best fake smile and stood up from the chair she was sitting in. Scott mirrored her movements and stood up as well. Shelby squatted down in front of Jena and grabbed her two small hands with her own. Shelby bit her bottom lip softly in nervousness and then put her fake smile back on.

"Sweety, we need to talk, but not here. How about we go back to our cabin and we can talk about everything." Shelby said with an almost calm voice.

"What about the storm?" Jena asked.

"It's not bad anymore. It's hardly even raining now." Scott said from behind Shelby.

"But it's still muddy out. I don't want to step in mud." Jena replied skeptically. It was mostly just that she wanted to know what was going on right that very moment but she was being told to wait and was getting impatient.

"I'll carry you then" Scott said with an actual smile, not a fake one.

Jena narrowed her eyes at Scott and thought about that for a moment but agreed.

"Fine," She said.

Jena walked around her Mother who had just stood up again and walked over to Scott. She looked up at him, waiting for him to pick her up. He complied. After picking her up, her looked at Shelby with a look that clearly said, '_what the hell are we gonna say?_' and Shelby just shrugged in return for she, too, had no idea what to say.

* * *

Scott set Jena down in a chair in Shelby's cabin while Shelby sat down on the bed. Scott followed Shelby and sat down next to her. The two looked at each other momentarily and then looked back at Jena. Neither of the pair really knew what to say. After all, how does one explain to a 5 year old child that she suddenly has a Father and that the only reason she didn't before was because her Mother ran away from him? Needless to say, it's not exactly an easy thing to say.

Shelby took a deep breath and opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She took another deep breath and counted to 5 in her mind hoping that that would help her think of something but it never did. Shelby turned to Scott and raised one eye brow in a questioning manor but Scott shook his head meaning that he didn't know what to say to Jena.

"I think you should start because you're the reason we're even having this conversation." Scott said to Shelby with a touch of bitterness in his voice.

Shelby picked up on the bitterness behind his woods and looked down to her shaking hands then back up to Jena for whether she liked it or not, Scott was right. If Shelby had not been so scared when she found on she was pregnant then they wouldn't be having this conversation.

"Sweety, you know how you use to always ask me about your daddy?" Shelby asked.

"Yeah," Jena replied, obviously confused.

"And how you use to ask if you even had a dad?"

Jena nodded.

"And how I use to always tell you that you did, but he just wasn't with us?"

Another nod from Jena.

"Well, your dad was never with us because I ran away from your dad a long time ago before you were born and I didn't see him again until this weekend."

Jena was extremely confused. She was trying to make sense of the little things her mom was saying but was having absolutely no luck.

Shelby saw the obvious confused on Jena's face and said, "Jena, Scott's your father."

Shelby thought that telling Jena would make her be rid of the weight that's been on her shoulder since Jena's been born but the weight wasn't gone. The feeling was still there completely. Telling Jena that Scott was her father didn't make the feeling lessen at all, not even an ounce. _Why?_ Shelby thought.

Jena looked confused still.

Jena looked Scott directly in the eye and asked, "Why weren't you there?"

Scott looked taken aback. _How is this all getting blamed on me?_ Scott thought to himself as he looked at Jena.

"Jena, I didn't have a choice. I didn't know about you let alone know you were my daughter. Your mom never told me about you." Scott replied gently.

Jena looked at her mother and asked, "Why didn't you tell him about me? Do you not like me?"

"Sweety, that's not it at all. I love you." Shelby replied, shocked at Jena's second question.

"Then why did you keep from my daddy!"

When Shelby didn't answer, Jena jumped up from the chair and marched to the bathroom. She turned around, glared at her parents, more to Shelby than Scott, and slammed the door. Jena leaned her back against the door and slid down it onto the floor. She started to cry and wasn't even sure why. She didn't know this man. So why did it bother her so much?

Jena let her frustration fall out into her tears that were cascading down her flushed cheeks. She realized that it wasn't Scott she was mad at, not even close. She was mad her Shelby, her own Mother. She was angry because this whole time she lived without a Father and it was because of her Mother that she was forced to do so.

* * *

Shelby walked over to the bathroom door and knocked on it softly.

"Jena?" Shelby questioned in a gentile voice.

"Go away!" Jena screamed back and it was obvious to her Mother in that moment that she was crying.

Shelby let out a sigh of guilt, frustration and something else that she couldn't put her finger on. Shelby knew that Jena wasn't going to just accept Scott as her dad but she didn't think that she would react this badly.

Shelby walked back over to the bed and sat back down next to Scott. She put her head in her hands and released a deep breath.

"I knew this was going to turn out bad." Shelby said but her words sounded some what muffled due to the fact that her head was still in her hands.

"This would've been a lot easier if you would've been honest with her in the first place." Scott retorted and hardly had any sympathy for Shelby.

Shelby raised her head from her hands and looked at Scott confused and hurt.

"I'm sorry, Shel, but I don't think it's fair that Jena is in the bathroom bawling her eyes out and that I suffered for years not knowing that I had a daughter or what had happened to you all because you were afraid of nothing." Scott said cruelly, standing up from the bed.

"You think I wanted this?" Shelby snapped also standing up. "You think I wanted my 5 year old daughter crying because of a mistake I made?"

"I didn't say that! But you left me because you were scared when you had nothing to be afraid of, Shelby. If you hadn't have left in the first place then, who knows, we might be a good family right now."

"So now all of this is my fault?"

"Well, who's fault do you think it is?" Scott snapped.

Shelby let a frustrated breath and turned away from Scott. She knew it was her fault so she gave up the argument.

"You make me so mad sometimes," Shelby said under her breath.

"Well, right back at you." Scott said.

They both loved each other so much but they still irritated each other occasionally. They use to do it all the time for when they would argue, they would always make up and along with making up it would be as though they would fall in love with each other all over again.

Shelby turned back to Scott with anger in her eyes. Scott, however, wasn't angry at all. He merely looked at Shelby.

"Why do we always fight?" Scott asked. "I don't want to."

"Neither do I," Shelby replied, growing soft again.

Scott looked down at Shelby who was a few feet away and walked over to her. He touched the side of her face with his now raised arm and forced her to look up at him. Now the look in her eyes had gone far from angry, now she just looked like she was in love. Scott had the same look in his eyes.

Scott leaned down and kissed Shelby's lips. She raised her head towards him and kissed him back letting all the love leak into their passionate kiss. Scott wrapped his arms around Shelby's waist and Shelby wrapped hers around his neck.

"Do I always gotta walk in on that?" Jena asked angry from the doorway of the bathroom.

The kiss ended quickly and the pair looked over at Jena. Jena was casting cold glares to both of her parents. She walked over and sat down in the chair again. Scott and Shelby sat back down on the bed and looked over at Jena hoping that now they could continue the conversation they were having before.

"If you did know about me, would you have been there?" Jena asked, looking directly at Scott.

"Yes," Scott replied, not even having to think about that.

"Why didn't you tell him, Mommy?" Jena asked getting emotional again but not storming off this time.

"Well," Shelby started but was at a loss of words.

"Would you mind if I answer for your mom, Jena?" Scott asked.

Jena and Shelby both looked at Scott but Scott kept his eyes fixed on Jena. She shrugged meaning that he could as long as she got her question answered.

"Jena, the night your mom found out about you she had a lot of emotions going through her. She was scared about a lot of things that night and your mom has never been good at dealing with fear so she ran away." Scott said and was shocked how easily he answered the question.

"Was she scared of you?" Jena asked.

"I think I was one of things that she was scared of, yes." Scott replied and nodded.

"Why? Are you scary?"

Scott was about to answer but Shelby laughed at Jena's question. Scott and Jena both looked at Shelby and she smiled.

"What's so funny?" Jena asked, accusingly.

"Nothing. It's just, Scott isn't scary at all, Jena. He's one of the most caring people I've ever met." Shelby replied.

"Then why'd you run away from him?"

"I wasn't running away from him. I just...I just had to get out. Only that time, I never went back."

"Why?"

"I was scared. But not of him."

"Then why?" Jena asked again.

"I'm not sure." Shelby replied.

Shelby opened her arms to Jena and Jena came to her Mother and sat down on her lap. Jena looked up at her Mother and Shelby looked down at her daughter, smiling.

"Sweety, do you think you could accept Scott as your dad?" Shelby asked.

"Does that mean he'd come home with us?" Jena asked.

"Most likely,"

"Would he play with me?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

Jena complied with the suggestion and moved so that she laid down on her two parent's laps; her legs on Shelby's and her upper body and head on Scott's.

Jena looked up to Scott and asked, "Would you play with me?"

"Yes," Scott said. "I would"

"Would you have picnics with me and Mommy?"

"Yes,"

"Would you help me bake cookies like Mommy does?"

"If you want me to."

"So you'd really be my daddy?"

"That's what I want and that's what your Mother wants as far as I know. Now it's up to you." Scott said.

"You have to be a good daddy," Jena said, pointing a finger at Scott.

"Well, I'm new to the job so," Scott pulled Jena completely onto his lap and sat her up. "You'd have to help me out a little bit but I'll do my best."

Jena looked at her mom who was also looking at her and smiled. She rolled off of Scott's lap and crawled herself over to Shelby.

She put her mouth right next to Shelby's ear and whispered, "He can be my daddy."

Shelby smiled and watched Jena go back to Scott. Jena poked her hand to Scott's side and instantly found his ticklish spot. Scott laughed and grabbed Jena's hand to cease the tickling.

"So, you like to tickle?" Scott asked with a smile. "Shelby, you might want to get off the bed."

As soon as Shelby was off the bed, Scott started to tickle Jena. Jena let out laughs and playful screams and Scott tickled her.

"Stop!" Jena screamed while still laughing.

Scott stopped and smiled down at Jena. Jena took the time Scott gave her and jumped on him. She started to tickle him again and laughed to herself as her plan worked. She wanted Scott to stop so she could tickle him and it worked. Scott pretended to be helpless and let Jena tickle him.

Shelby's smile grew so much as she watched the two play together. At watching Jena and Scott play together and realizing that this was it, this was how it was going to be for the rest of her life, the weight she was carrying finally lifted off her shoulders. Shelby realized that the reason the weight wasn't lifted when she told Jena before was because she needed Jena to accept it and to accept Scott and now that she did, Shelby was free of the weight she had since she left Scott so many years ago.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off thanks for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy ScottandShelbyfan,Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess 2008ccampbell sweetgirl and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

I know this chapter was a little 'eh' but it was really difficult to write. Honestly, how do you tell a 5 year old something like this? I hope I did a semi-good job at this chapter. It's really all up to what you guys think so please review and let me know if you think I screwed up(like I think I kinda did) or if you guys think I did good or inbetween or whatever. Please just let me know what you think.


	16. Saying Goodbye

Shelby was packing the last of hers and Jena's belongings into the two suitcase. She was walking back and forth from one end of the room to the other grabbing everything and making sure she wasn't forgetting anything.

"Do we have to go?" Jena asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Yes," Shelby replied. "We have to. I'm already 3 days late for work."

"Is daddy coming home with us?" Jena asked.

Shelby smiled. Jena hadn't even known Scott was her father for a week and she was already calling him 'daddy'.

"No, he's not. But, we're going to go stay with him for a little bit this weekend." Shelby said.

"Are we always gonna be going on trips on the weekends now?" Jena asked.

"No," Shelby chuckled. "Actually, me and Scott need to talk about that."

Scott and Shelby still haven't discussed what's going to happen as far as living standards. Shelby lived in Chicago while Scott lived in St. Louis. They couldn't keep going back and forth every weekend for the rest of their lives. It wouldn't be good for Jena or for them as a couple.

Shelby sighed as she heard a knock on her door. She walked over to the door and opened it to see Scott. A smile crept on her face and she hugged him. She was going to go for just a hug but Scott placed a kiss on her lips, forgetting that Jena was in the room.

"Eww," Jena complained.

Scott pulled his lips off of Shelby's lips and smiled.

"We really have to stop doing that in front of her," Scott breathed against Shelby's lips.

"It was your fault," Shelby teased.

They both smiled at each other and Scott kissed Shelby quickly. They both moved away from each other. Shelby did a couple last minute checks before finally closing the suitcases. She picked up both of the suitcases and started to walk towards the door but Scott took one of the suitcases from her and carried it himself.

"What are you doing?" Shelby asked.

"Taking one of your suitcases for you. You don't have to carry both of them. Hell, I'll carry your other one, too if you want me to," Scott replied simply.

"I don't want you to. You know how I hate having other people do things for me when I know that I can do them myself."

"Why don't you just say 'thank you' and accept my help?"

"Fine," Shelby gave up. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Scott responded with a smirk.

* * *

Scott, Shelby and Jena walked into the lodge to meet all of the other former Cliffhangers, Peter and Sophie. Scott and Shelby put down the suitcases and walked over to the group who were all hugging each other and saying their tear-filled good-byes. 

"Oh, Shelby!" Sophie said and pulled Shelby into a tight hug.

Shelby was very surprised by it but hugged her back regardless. Sophie was squeezing so tight that Shelby was starting to not be able to breath.

"Okay," Shelby said. "Oxygen's becoming an issue."

"Sorry," Sophie said and pulled away only to move to Scott and pull him into a tight hug.

Shelby chuckled to herself as Scott was pulled into the hug and then walked over towards Peter who was in the middle of saying goodbye to Ezra. Once Peter noticed Shelby he turned around and they gave each other a quick hug.

"Are you going to be okay? I know a lot's happened while you were here." Peter said.

"I'll be fine," Shelby replied calmly with a smile.

"All right. You know you can call me if you ever need anything."

"I know. Ya know, I really didn't want to come here this weekend," Shelby glanced at Scott holding Jena in his arms. "But I'm really glad I did."

"He missed you, Shelby." Peter said.

"I know he did. And I missed him, too. I just reacted badly and thought that he wouldn't take me back, so I didn't bother." Shelby replied. "And with me becoming a mom and having to worry about everything I had no room to hope he would take me back."

"Hey, there's always room for hope."

"I remember that now. I had forgotten that but being back here if only for the weekend, it made me remember everything I learned here and I'm happy for that. I needed to remember."

Shelby and Peter hugged each other again. They smiled and then moved to go say goodbye to other people.

* * *

Shelby walked up next to Scott as he was saying goodbye Auggie but he no longer had Jena in his arms. 

"Where's Jena?" Shelby asked.

Scott looked worried as if he lost her.

"Scott!" Shelby almost screamed.

"Relax, She's with Daisy." Scott replied calmly with a smirk.

"Chill, Shel. You don't think he'd be a father and loose his kid all in the same week, do you?" Auggie asked with a smirk.

"I don't know. It's hard to tell with him," Shelby replied, smiled and nudged Scott.

They all chuckled.

"Shelby, it was good seeing you," Auggie said and hugged her.

"You too, Aug," Shelby replied.

"And I'm glad you two worked everything out."

"Me, too," Shelby said and looked up at Scott. "Okay, well I have to go find your wife. She'll kill me if I don't say goodbye to her."

Shelby left to go find Juliet while Scott and Auggie went back to talking.

"So, how are you two?" Auggie asked.

"We're good. It's just, everything's so confusing now," Scott replied.

"You two gonna live together now?"

"I want to but that's confusing too. I mean, she lives in Chicago and I live in St. Louis. I'm not gonna ask her to quit her job to come live with me but I can't exactly quit mine to go up to live with her either."

"You guys should figure something out."

"I hope so."

"Yeah. Well, it was good seeing you, meat," Auggie said.

"It was good seeing you, too," Scott replied.

They shook hands with each other. They never really hugged each other; it was too strange for them. They could hug girls, Peter, Ezra, sometimes even David but they could never hug each other.

* * *

Juliet was talking to Daisy and Jason when Shelby found her. 

"And I better get an invite to your wedding," Juliet said to Daisy.

"You will," Daisy smiled.

"Oh, Shelby!" Juliet said and pulled Shelby into a hug.

It was always strange when they hugged for they weren't exactly known to get along great but it was a different story after that weekend. They were always like family before and they hadn't seen each other in years so a hug was kind of mandatory.

They parted from the hug and Juliet looked like she had tears in her eyes.

"Princess, are you crying?" Shelby asked.

"Yeah. It's just so sad. None of us saw each other for so long and now it's going to be like all over again. I'm gonna miss everyone," Juliet explained.

"Relax, Jules," Daisy said.

Juliet smiled and hugged Daisy. She hugged Jason too even though she didn't know him. Jason was okay with it but the look on his face was priceless; he was, obviously, not expecting the hug.

"Mommy, why do people keep hugging me?" Jena asked from Jason's arms.

"Because we're at Horizon and that's what people do here," Shelby replied with a small smile.

* * *

"Michelle, we have to go," David said from not too far away from the group. Him and Kat were trying to separate Michelle and Chris. They became friends while here and apparently, didn't want to leave each other. 

"Having some trouble there?" Shelby asked with a smirk.

David looked and Shelby and said, "Very funny."

"Shelby!" Kate said and ran over to her and gave her a hug. "I'm gonna miss you."

"My turn next," Ezra said.

Shelby chuckled to herself and hugged Ezra. She went to David but they didn't hug.

"David," Shelby said.

"Shelby," David responded with a nod of his head.

"See, you know how to say goodbye."

David and Shelby both smiled to each other and went their separate ways.

Shelby walked back over to Scott who was saying his good-byes to Peter. Shelby smiled as Scott noticed her and wrapped his arm around her waist. She couldn't help but be happy. She was upset for they were leaving but she was leaving with Scott so it made the trip worth while.

"I'm ready to go whenever you are," Shelby said to Scott.

He nodded to Shelby and turned back to Peter. They hugged each other and Scott thanked Peter for being there for him these past few days. Peter smiled and nodded to Scott.

Scott and Shelby walked over to Daisy, Jason and Jena. Shelby grabbed the suitcase she was carrying before and Scott grabbed the other one and they turned around, smiled, waved goodbye a final time and left the lodge.

Shelby opened the trunk of her car and her and Scott placed the suitcases inside. Shelby closed the trunk, buckled Jena into her seat and paused to look at Scott before getting in the car. They hugged each other and kissed very briefly before getting into their own vehicles and drove off.

Shelby had told Scott to call her once he got home and he agreed. He actually wanted Jena and Shelby to just come back to his house for a while so Shelby could keep her promise and be there when Scott broke up with Anita but Shelby wanted to be home for a little while. Shelby and Jena were going to go down that weekend anyhow and the weekend was only 3 days away.

* * *

Shelby and Jena walked into their small house and Shelby put the suitcases on the floor. Jena ran strait to her room and threw herself on her bed. She missed being home, sleeping in her own room and on her own bed. 

Shelby smiled at Jena and walked into her own room. She sat down on the corner of her bed and opened the top drawer of the small dresser next to her bed. She moved several papers and took out the picture of her and Scott from graduation. She smiled at the picture and unlike when she usually looks at the picture, it was a truly happy smile.

She stood up from her bed, took one of the random picture frames she had around her room and took the picture she had of her and Jena out. She had several pictures of her and Jena together around the house and in her room so she felt no shame in replacing that picture with the one of her and Scott.

Shelby put the picture frame back on the shelve she took it down from and smiled while looking at it. She jumped as she heard her cell phone ring and felt it vibrate against her thigh from the inside of her pocket. She shook her head and took the phone out. The smile that disappeared when the phone rang reappeared when she looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Scott.

She flipped open her phone and said, "Hello?"

"Hi. I missed you," Scott's voice came over the other line.

"Scott, we saw each other, like, 12 hours ago," Shelby replied.

"I know. Doesn't mean I can't miss you."

"I know. I wanted you to call anyhow. Have you talked to Anita?"

"Not yet," Scott sighed. "But she wanted me to call her once I got back. And even if I don't, I have to go to work tomorrow and she's my partner so I would have to see her."

"Don't sound so happy about it," Shelby teased for Scott didn't sound enthused about seeing Anita.

"I'm sorry. She's wonderful but she's not the person I'm in love with."

"So, why don't you tell her that?"

"Because I know it's going to hurt her. And you already promised you would be here when I break up with her."

"I know, Scott. But I'm not coming down there until this weekend and you can't just pretend like everything's great until I'm there."

"I know. You still promised though, and I'm going to make you stick to that promise," Scott replied with a mischievous voice.

"Oh, yeah. Great. Have her hate me."

"She won't hate you. She might be a little envious, but she won't hate you."

"Right," Shelby replied, not convinced

Shelby sat down on her bed and lay back. She sighed and thought about how much she really didn't want to be there for the break up. But, she made a promise to Scott and she knew Scott was going to hold her to it.

"Mommy!" Jean screamed and jumped on the bed next to Shelby. "Let's watch booty and the beast."

Shelby chuckled. Jena meant _Beauty and The Beast_ but she still couldn't 'beauty' correctly so it always came out 'booty'.

"I thought her favorite movie was _Alice In Wonderland_?" Scott asked.

"It is," Shelby replied. "But, she loves_ Beauty and The Beast_, _The Lion King_, _The Little Mermaid_, and _Cinderella_ too."

"All classic Disney movies," Scott approved.

Shelby shook her head and chuckled.

"Who are you talking to?" Jena asked her Mom.

"Your dad," Shelby replied.

"Hi, Daddy!" Jena screamed into the phone.

Shelby pulled away slightly so Jena wouldn't make Scott go deaf from the loudness of her voice but was a little bit too late.

"Okay first off, ow, that was loud. Second, let me talk to her," Scott replied and one could tell by his tone that he was smiling. He loved that Jena called him 'daddy'.

"Here," Shelby said to Jena and handed her the cell phone. "He wants to talk to you."

Jena took the phone from Shelby's hand, raised it to her ear and said, "Hi, Daddy."

"Hey, Jena," Scott replied.

"When am I gonna see you again?"

"You and your Mom are gonna come down and visit in just a few days."

"For how long?"

"Only for the weekend," Scott said and sounded upset about that.

"Okay," Jena didn't sound any happier than Scott felt about how short the visit would be. "Can you get Mommy to watch Booty and the beast with me?"

"If you put her back on the phone, I'll try."

"Okay. I'll give it back to her."

"Okay, I'll see you this weekend, sweetie."

"Bye, Daddy," Jena said.

"Bye, baby," Scott replied.

Jena gave the phone back to Shelby and left the room to go get _Beauty and The Beast_. She knew that she would be watching the movie with her Mom so she grabbed the movie for she didn't want to wait once Shelby agreed.

* * *

"Hello?" Shelby said as she brought her phone back to her ear. 

"Hi," Scott replied. "You have to watch _Beauty and The Beast_ with our daughter."

"That still sounds so strange."

"What does?"

"Saying 'our daughter'."

"Hey, how do you think I feel? You knew she was my daughter, I didn't," Scott said.

"I know. I'm not even really sure why it's so strange to me but it is," Shelby replied with a sigh.

"A good strange or a bad strange?"

"Good strange," Shelby assured.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Scott said and smiled.

"Okay, well I'm going to go watch the movie with Jena. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay. I love you," Scott said in a sweet voice.

"I love you, too," Shelby replied with a huge smile on her face.

Shelby hung up the phone and lie back on her bed with that huge smile still on her face. She let a soft, almost giddy, sigh leave her lips. She loved the fact that Scott still loved her even after all she did to him. Everything was working out so well for her.

"Mommy, come watch the movie with me," Jena said from the doorway.

"Okay, I'm coming," Shelby responded, getting up from the bed.

Shelby walked into their living room behind Jena and saw that the movie had already been started and was already at the '_Bonjour_!' part. Shelby sat down on the couch and Jena sat next to her. Jena leaned her head on Shelby and they watched _Beauty and The Beast_ together.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off thank you all so much for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy, ScottandShelbyfan, Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess, 2008ccampbell, sweetgirl,Lavender Brown-Halliwell, mary-023, HCLvr,and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

I don't know what everyone will think of this chapter. I'm not even really sure what I think of this chapter but it's really all up to my readers.

I'm starting a new story as soon as I can. I'm going to write my next "Saying Goodbye" story which will be called "No More Hiding" if anyone wants more info on that, please look at my main page. And then I'm going to start a new story called "All Because of a Play" that I've been really excited about writing ever since I thought of the idea. If anyone wants more info on that, please look at my main page.

The reason I'm telling everyone this is because I don't know how quickly I'll be able to update any of my stories so please be patient. I do know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of this story, I just have to get around to writing is so I'll have an update A.S.AP. And I will for sure be writing a sequal as I have said before. I think I have an idea about what to call it but I'm not sure, I do for sure know what I'm going to have happen. And I have an idea to write another part to this story which will be the third story so in a way, this will become a type of series. Tell me you think this is a good idea.

Please review this chapter whether it's good or bad. I can handle harsh words so don't be afraid to hrut my feelings. But, please review a writer(any writer) likes to know how they're doing.


	17. The Break Up

Shelby pulled into the driveway of Scott's house and turned off her car. She looked into the back seat and saw that Jena was sound asleep. Shelby smiled at the sight of her silent, peaceful daughter and got out of the car. Before she could even walk to start getting their things or wake Jena up, Scott was next to her and pulled Shelby into his arms.

"Hey," He said with a grin.

"Hey," Shelby replied with the smile on her face growing.

Scott leaned down and kissed Shelby gently on the lips. He'd been wanting to kiss her again for days, ever since they last saw each other and Shelby couldn't deny the fact that she felt the same. She stretched up on her tip toes and returned the kiss. Slowly and reluctantly, the both pulled away from the embrace.

"Which do you want to get: Jena or our suitcases?" Shelby asked.

"Suitcases? As in plural? How many did you bring, you guys are only staying for the weekend?" Scott joked.

"One for me and one for Jena."

"I'll take the suitcases."

Shelby nodded as Scott walked around to the back of the car and waited for Shelby to open the truck. She hit the button on her keys and the truck popped open. Shelby opened the back door and lightly touched Jena's cheek. She woke up slowly and looked around with a confused look.

"We're here," Shelby said to Jena which caused a smile to form.

"Where's Daddy?" Jena asked with her voice showing that she had, obviously, just woken up.

Scott came up to the side of the car, by Shelby and Jena and put down the suitcases momentarily. He unbuckled Jena from her car seat so quickly that one would think he had done it countless times before when, really, he hadn't and pulled Jena into a hug. She squeezed him back tightly and smiled. Jena loved the fact that she now had a Mother and a Father.

"Here," Shelby said and handed Scott the suitcases. "You take these and I'll take Jena."

"I wanna walk," Jena stated.

Neither of her parents argued. Scott put Jena down and she started to half walk, half jog up to the front door. She was so excited.

Shelby and Scott both chuckled and smiled at the sight of Jena. Shelby grabbed Jena's suitcase from Scott and started to walk to the front door. When they reached the door, Jena was looking at them both with a look that said 'hurry up!'. Scott just smiled and opened the door.

Everyone walked into the rather nice house. Shelby wasn't expecting Scott to have a house that was this well done. The walls weren't plain white like she had expected, they were a nice gray color with carpet to matched and black, leather furniture. Shelby smiled, impressed with the looks of the house.

"Okay, where do you want me to put this?" Shelby asked Scott.

"Well, you're staying in my room with me, right?" Scott asked, even though he knew the answer.

"Well, I better be," Shelby said with a grin.

"Okay, then I'll put your suitcase in my room and then Jena's can go in the guest bedroom which is right next to it. Come on."

They walked down a hallway and Scott walked into his bedroom. Scott put Shelby's suitcase on his big, queen size bed. Once again, Shelby was impressed with the look of the house as she saw how well done the room was as well. He had pale blue walls that had a tint of gray to them with nicely decorated furniture.

Scott walked out of his room to the next door which was the guest bedroom. He walked in and motioned Shelby to follow. She walked in, looked around the room and saw that even the guest bedroom was nice; it had beige walls and a matching carpet with a nice twin size bed and simple dresser. Shelby nodded and looked at Scott.

"What?" He asked.

"I wasn't expecting this," Shelby replied.

"You weren't expecting what?"

"For you to have such a nice house. I have been impressed with the whole house so far."

"Thanks, I think."

"What do you mean, you think?" Shelby asked.

"Well, you said it's nice, but you're surprised about it about I think you were expecting me to be a slob or something," Scott said.

"That's not true, it's just you are a guy in your twenties so I'm guilty of stereotyping you. Sorry."

"You're forgiven."

Scott pulled Shelby into his arms and put her chin between his thumb and forefinger. He raised her head to his and laid a kiss on her lips, but their lips instantly parted when they heard a crash come from down the hall.

They both rushed down the hallway and saw Jena looking at a bunch of now crumbled cookies on the floor near a Chips Ahoy box. She looked up at her parents with a guilty look on her face.

"I sorry," She said.

Shelby smiled at Jena while Scott burst into laughter. Jena looked at him confused.

"It's okay, Jena," Scott said.

"So, you not mad?" Jena asked.

"No, I'm not mad."

"Are you, Mommy?"

"No, I'm not," Shelby replied. "But next time you want cookies, come ask us, please. Okay?"

"Okay," Jena replied.

Scott cleaned up the cookie mess and handed Jena an unopened package of Chips Ahoy cookies. She smiled and took the cookies from him. She had trouble opening them, but once she did, she grabbed a cookie and ate it very quickly.

Scott looked over at Shelby and said, "Okay, so my Mom's coming over tonight to watch Jena so we can go see Anita then."

"What?" Shelby asked surprised. "You're Mom's coming over?"

"Yeah," Scott replied. "I told her about you and Jena and she wants to meet her long lost grand daughter."

"So she's going to baby-sit Jena while we go do what?"

"You promised you would be there when I broke up with Anita."

"So you want to do that tonight?" Shelby asked.

"Yeah. I can't keep avoiding her," Scott said.

"Then why are you?"

Jena didn't want to interrupt, but she didn't know how to work the remote so she announced her problem aloud. Scott walked over to her and turned the TV on. He showed her which buttons to press to change the channel and she thanked him. She found 'The Lion King' on TV and let Scott get back to his conversation with Shelby.

"Well, I can't be with both of you," Scott said.

"I know that, but why are you avoiding her?" Shelby asked again.

"Because every time I'm with her, she wants to make out or do even more and it just wasn't right."

"Oh."

Shelby was nervous about being there when they broke up. When Anita visited Scott and Horizon, she assured her that she wasn't planning on getting back together with Scott and she went completely against what she had said. Actually, she wasn't. She wasn't planning on getting back with Scott, it just happened, but now that it did, she wasn't going to fight it. She was happy that she was with Scott again, she was just worried about Anita.

"So are you okay with going tonight?" Scott asked Shelby.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, right?" Shelby asked.

"No, you don't," Scott replied, shaking his head and smiling.

"Okay. When's your Mom going to be here?"

"In about two hours."

"Okay, well then I have to shower and get ready."

"Who are you trying to impress? Anita?" Scott asked with a grin.

"No, your Mother," Shelby replied.

"My Mom has met you before and loves you."

"Yeah, that was before she found out that I kept your kid from you for five years."

"True. But she seemed more happy about having a long lost grand daughter than upset."

"Still, I would like to shower, change my clothes and maybe get the chance to put a little bit of make up on," Shelby said with a look that said she was going to get her shower whether Scott liked it or not.

"Fine," Scott said and gave up for her realized that trying to argue with Shelby once she's made up her mind is pointless. "The bathroom's across from my bedroom. I'll watch Jena."

"Thanks," Shelby said and kissed him very briefly on the lips.

Before Scott even had a chance to kiss back, Shelby was gone and had disappeared down the hallway. Scott smiled at how nervous she was about seeing his Mom and shook his head. He walked over to Jena on the couch and sat down next to her. He started to watch the movie with her and smiled at the part that was on; it was the whole scene with "Can you feel the love tonight?".

Scott leaned back and actually got really into the movie. Jena leaned back as well and rested her head on Scott.

* * *

Shelby looked around into the living room and saw Scott and Jena together on the couch. She couldn't help but smile at the sight. She bit her bottom lip and walked back down the hallway into the bathroom. She put down everything she had in her hand; her brush, a towel and new clothes. She took off her clothes and stepped into the shower. She turned on the water and watched as it came out of the shower head. She turned the shower head and set it to the hardest setting and turned around.

She let the water pound on her bare back and closed her eyes. She tilted her head back under the water and let her hair get wet. She was so nervous now about meeting Susan again that every muscle in her body was tense. Shelby opened her eyes and grabbed her shampoo, hoping that after she was clean that she would feel a little better.

Once Shelby had washed her body and shampooed and conditioned her hair, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped her big, soft, blue towel around her body. She wiped the steam off of the mirror over the sink and saw her reflection.

She picked up her brush and brushed out her blonde hair, she parted it slightly to the side and brushed her hair strait. She grabbed a smaller towel that she had brought in with her and started to try and dry her hair. She scrunched the towel around her hair and once she stopped her hair looked kind of curly, but she didn't care. She shook her head and then left her hair alone for the moment.

Shelby went to go put on her underwear, but couldn't find her bra. Then, she remembered that she forgot to grab one. She rolled her eyes and walked out of the bathroom with the towel still wrapped around her body. She walked across the hall into the bedroom and grabbed a bra from her suitcase.

"What are you doing?" Scott asked from the doorway.

Shelby almost jumped. She didn't know when he got there, the last thing she knew, he was still out in the living room watching 'The Lion King' with Jena. She turned around and looked at him. He smiled at the sight of her.

"I forgot to grab a bra," Shelby said and went to go back into the bathroom, but Scott wouldn't let her leave the room.

She looked at him and with a grin, she stretched up on her tip toes. She kissed him passionately and grabbed his shirt to pull him closer to her. She was being very careful and had planned this out so well that he didn't even notice that Shelby was slowly turning him around so she could get out. Once she was able to get out, she released the kiss and smiled.

"Sucker," Shelby said and walked across the hall into the bathroom.

"That is so cheating," Scott said.

"So what if it is. It worked, didn't it?" Shelby said.

She winked and closed the door with a smile.

Shelby put on her black bra and panties and her blue jeans. She was waiting on the shirt until she had put her make up on for she didn't want to take the chance of getting any make up on it. Shelby brushed out her hair again and walked back out of the bathroom.

She walked back into the bedroom and grabbed her make up bag. Before she even tried to leave the room, she made sure that Scott wasn't standing in the doorway again, which he wasn't. She walked back out of the room and back into the bathroom. She didn't even bother closing the door this time as she started to put on her make up.

She didn't add any concealer for she had good skin and didn't think that she needed any but she did put on eye make up. She put on light gray eye shadow, black eye liner and a little bit of black mascara. She wasn't very impressed, but she thought it would do so she left it alone. She didn't want to add too much make up and make it look like she was actually trying to impress anyone.

Shelby brushed her teeth and looked at the time from across the hall. She saw that she still had almost an hour left before Susan was going to be there and stopped rushing.

"Shelby, you need to relax," Scott said from the door way.

"I can't," Shelby replied.

Scott walked over to Shelby and pressed his body against her back. He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her waist and watched them in the mirror.

"You're going to be okay," Scott assured her.

"But, what if she doesn't like me now after everything that happened between me and you?" Shelby asked.

"Look, I love you and I'm sure my Mom will, too. She loved you before, didn't she?"

"Yes, but the operative word in that sentence is 'before'. That was before I left you with out so much as a word."

"Shelby," Scott said and turned her to face him. "Relax. She was talking about how much she was looking forward to seeing you again so I don't think you have much to worry about."

"She was?" Shelby questioned.

"Yes," Scott nodded.

Scott looked Shelby up and down and liked that she still only had a bra on with no shirt.

"Are you sure you want to put a shirt on? I mean, I think you look fine right now," Scott said even though he knew the answer.

"I'm putting a shirt on, Scott," Shelby replied with a grin. "But, not for another couple of minutes."

Shelby stood on her tip toes and pulled Scott into a kiss. The kiss was passionate and deep. They opened their mouths to each other and massaged the others tongue with their own. Shelby grabbed the bottom of Scott's shirt and pulled it over his head, which was the only time their mouths separated. She rubbed her hands over his toned chest as he was rubbing her back, pulling her even closer.

Scott raised his hands to the clasp of her bra and went to unclasp it, but Shelby stopped him and pulled away from the kiss.

"Jena is right down the hall way," Shelby said softly with her lips just barely off of Scott's.

"Right," Scott said and pulled away even more.

Scott leaned down and grabbed his shirt. He put it back on and Shelby couldn't help but frown at the fact that he put his shirt back on. She loved seeing him with it off, but she knew it was for the best. Maybe they could even convince Susan to take Jena for the night so Shelby could see that chest a lot more, but she wasn't counting on. But, Shelby was determined to have sex with Scott that weekend, even if Jena was in the other room. Ever since they did at Horizon, Shelby's been wanting it again.

Shelby sighed and put on her black, v-neck, shirt. She looked back to her reflection in the mirror and went back to messing with her hair. Her hair was drying naturally which was making it frizz and Shelby hated it when her hair did that. She went into the other room and grabbed her blow dryer. She was hoping that she could save her hair from looking like a complete mess.

Shelby messed with her hair for 15 minutes and it actually looked semi-good. It was her normal, blonde, strait hair. She decided just to leave it down for she didn't feel like trying to do anything else to it.

Shelby put a clear gloss on her lips and took a final glance into the mirror.

Shelby walked out of the bathroom and into the living room where she noticed that Jena's clothes had been changed and her hair had been brushed out. She was now wearing a new pair of blue jeans and a baby blue shirt with a yellow daisy on it. Her curly, blonde hair was brushed out and looked naturally good.

Shelby also saw that Scott had changed clothes as well. He was now wearing a pair of blue jeans, with a white, male style wife beater and a black button up shirt over that. Of course, as usual, Scott hadn't buttoned up the shirt.

Both of them looked over at Shelby and smiled.

"Finally," Jena said, teasing her Mom. "You took a long time to get ready, Mommy."

"Well, sorry," Shelby said and chuckled.

Shelby sat down on the couch on the other side of Jena and started to watch the TV She noticed that it was "Return of the Jed" on right away and looked at Jena with a confused look.

"You like STAR WARS?" Shelby asked.

"Daddy put it on," Jena replied.

"Oh," Shelby said and smiled to Scott.

The three of them watched the movie for a few minutes until there was a knock on the door. Scott stood up to go answer it while Shelby got nervous again, knowing that it was Scott's Mother at the door.

"Grandma's here?" Jena asked.

"Did Scott tell you everything?" Shelby asked.

Jena only nodded in response. She stood up from the couch and followed Scott to where he was and saw Susan. Shelby followed Jena and looked at Susan. She looked like she hadn't aged a day in almost six years.

"Shelby!" Susan exclaimed and went over to Shelby, pulling her into a hug.

Shelby instantly relaxed when she was in Susan's arms and realized that Susan wasn't going to hate her after all. Susan pulled slowly away and smiled.

"It's been so long," She said.

"Yes," Shelby replied. "It has been."

Susan looked down at Jena.

"And this must be Jena," She said.

"Hi," Jena said with a nod.

"Oh, Scott, she looks so much like you," Susan said while quickly glancing at Scott.

"I actually always thought she took after you the most," Shelby explained to Susan.

"I'll take that as a compliment considering that she's beautiful."

Shelby looked to Scott and smiled. Scott gave her a knowing smile, with a look on his face that said 'I old ya so'.

"Mom, are you sure you're okay with watching Jena tonight?" Scott asked.

"Of course," Susan replied. "You need to get this thing with Anita done sooner rather than later."

"Thanks," Scott said and hugged his Mom.

"No problem. It will be a good time to get to know my grand daughter."

Shelby crouched down by Jena.

"Be good for Susan, okay?" Shelby said.

"I will," Jena replied.

"All right. I'll see you later," Shelby said and hugged Jena.

Shelby stood up and looked to Susan and said, "Thank you."

Susan only smiled in return.

"Come on," Scott said to Shelby.

Shelby nodded and walked out the door, following Scott. They walked to his car and got in. Shelby was nervous about being there when Scott broke up with Anita. She had no idea how Anita was going to act or even how Scott was planning on breaking up with her.

Shelby buckled her seat belt and looked out the window, trying to get her mind off of it, but it was doing no good.

"Shelby," Scott said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just a little nervous about this," Shelby replied.

"Why? You're not the one breaking up with someone."

"No, I'm just the reason you are breaking up with someone."

The rest of the car ride was quiet save for the music coming out of the speakers softly.

* * *

Scott pulled up to Anita's apartment and turned off the car. He got out of the car and Shelby followed his lead. He pushed the button to Anita's apartment and she unlocked the door for him. They walked up the stairs and waited at her door.

"You'll be fine," Scott whispered to Shelby right before he knocked on the door.

Before Shelby could even think of how to react to what Scott had just said, Anita opened the door. She smiled at Scott, but looked at Shelby confused. Anita understood why Scott would be at her apartment, but not Shelby, and especially not Shelby with Scott. Anita took her confused look to Scott and raised her eye brows to him in a questioning manner.

"How about I explain everything inside?" Scott suggested.

"Okay," Anita said and moved so Scott and Shelby could enter.

Anita motioned Scott and Shelby to sit down on the couch as she sat in a chair next to Scott.

"What's going on?" Anita asked for she could tell something was out of the ordinary.

Scott closed his eyes and sighed. He opened his eyes again, looked directly at Anita and said, "I'm sorry. Anita, I can't be with you anymore."

"Because of her?" Anita asked, addressing Shelby.

"Partially. But also because of Jena and because of me."

"Jena, as in Shelby's daughter, Jena?"

"She's my daughter, too."

Anita stood up and walked to the other side of the room. She didn't want to be by Scott or Shelby at that moment.

"You have a daughter and you never told me?" Anita asked.

"I didn't know about her until I went to Horizon last weekend," Scott replied.

"And you've always known he was the Father, right?" Anita asked Shelby.

"Yeah," Shelby replied softly while nodding her head.

"Shelby, didn't you tell me that you weren't planning on getting back together with Scott when I asked about it?"

"Yes, I did tell you that, but things didn't work out as planned."

"Obviously," Anita said with attitude. "So, what? Did you two fuck and realize that you guys were perfect for each other?"

Scott and Shelby looked at each other knowingly for that is a lot like what happened. They both looked back to Anita with guilty looks.

Anita shook her head and looked to Shelby.

"You little slut," Anita said.

"Hey!" Scott said and stood up from the couch. "Don't call her that."

"Shut up, Scott," Anita retorted hotly and then turned back to Shelby. "You left him years ago and then see him again, realize that he's still hott and is still in love with you and you fuck him. Is that how it happened?"

Shelby was silent. That's not how it happened, but Shelby felt bad for Anita and she didn't want to make things worse; it would be a lot like putting lemon juice on a paper cut, stupid and cruel.

"Answer me, Shelby!" Anita almost screamed.

"No, that's not how it happened," Shelby replied softly.

"Then how did it happen?"

"Anita," Scott said, but she gave him a cold glare that silenced him.

"How did it happen, Shelby?" Anita asked again.

"We realized that we both still loved each other and I realized that I was an idiot for leaving him before," Shelby said, no longer feeling bad for Anita.

"Oh, and you having his kid had nothing to do with his choice, right?"

"You would have to ask him that one."

"Did it, Scott?" Anita asked.

"No," Scott stated. "Jena being mine was just a plus."

Scott walked over to Shelby and put his arm around her waist. Shelby looked up at Scott and wrapped her arm around his waist.

"Anita, I'm sorry, but I love Shelby," Scott said.

"And I guess I meant nothing to you," Anita said and made it a statement, not a question.

"That's not true. I did, at one point, love you, Anita. I just don't anymore, not in that way, at least."

Anita closed her eyes and a tear fell from each one. She took a deep, slow breath and one could tell that she fighting back more tears. She opened her eyes and focused on Shelby.

"I never thought I would say this to anyone, but I envy you, Shelby Merrick," Anita said and glanced at Scott then back at Shelby. "Take care of him."

"I will," Shelby assured.

"Well, with as little offense possible to you guys, I'd like to be alone right now," Anita said.

Scott and Shelby both nodded and turned to leave. They walked to the door and were about to leave, but Shelby touched Scott's shoulder and told him to go ahead and that she would meet him in the car.

Shelby looked back to Anita and with a sad smile she said, "I am sorry, Anita."

"Just take care of him. If you break his heart again, I'll break your jaw," Anita replied and one could tell that she meant it.

"Don't worry," Shelby said. "I won't make the same mistake twice."

"Good."

Anita grabbed a container of chocolate ice cream from her freezer, grabbed a spoon and sat down on the couch. She pulled a blanket over her and turned on the TV with the remote. Shelby, also being a women who has been hurt in the past, knew that this was all part of the mourning phase; she would eat chocolate and other fattening food and watch lots of chick flicks that would make her cry even more.

Shelby left Anita's apartment without a word and walked down to Scott's car.

"What was that about?" Scott asked Shelby once she closed the passenger door.

"Girl stuff," Shelby replied and touched Scott's shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

Scott nodded and decided not to try and understand what it was. If it was girl stuff than he wasn't going to bother giving himself the head ache he would gain by trying to make sense of it.

* * *

Scott and Shelby walked into the house and Scott put the car keys on a hook. Susan walked up to them with a smile.

"Try and stay quiet, Jena's asleep," Susan said.

"That was quick. We were only gone for, like, an hour and a half," Shelby replied.

"Well, when you guys left, I got her into her P.J.s and we put in 'Alice in Wonderland' and she was asleep half way through it."

"Yeah, she loves that movie."

"I can tell."

"Thank you," Shelby said with a smile to Susan.

"It was my pleasure," Susan replied and smiled. "I'm happy I got to meet her and to see you again."

"To tell you the truth, I was actually very nervous about seeing you again. I thought you would hate me for leaving Scott before."

"She was," Scott said. "You should've seen her while she was getting ready."

"I could never hate you for that, Shelby," Susan said. "I was a Mother-to-be before, too and I know how many emotions you have going through you when you find out you're pregnant. I don't blame you for running away."

Shelby smiled to Susan and gave her a hug. Susan hugged Scott, said her good byes and left the house.

Scott and Shelby walked past the living room and saw that Jena was sleeping peacefully on the couch with her head rested on a pillow and a blanket covering her body. They both smiled at the sight.

"Should we move her?" Scott asked.

"No," Shelby said. "I don't want to take the chance of waking her up. I like that she's sound asleep, she won't wake up as long as we're quiet."

Scott looked at Shelby with raised eye brows and Shelby grinned in return. Shelby walked down the hallway and into the room. She was quickly followed by Scott who closed the door behind him.

Shelby called him over to her and once he was by her, she pulled off his black shirt and pulled him into a kiss. Scott quickly returned the kiss and took off Shelby's shirt, leaving her in only a bra and jeans. Shelby pulled off Scott's wife beater and they fell on to the bed with Scott on top of Shelby.

They both let all thoughts leave their mind and lost themselves in each other.

* * *

**A/N**)- First off thank you all so much for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy, ScottandShelbyfan, Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess, 2008ccampbell, sweetgirl,Lavender Brown-Halliwell, mary-023, angel, Saun,HCLvr, and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

I have this on my main page too, but I'll post it in my A/N anyhow. This story is going up to chapter 20 and then ending. But, I will for sure be writing a sequal. I know exactly what I'm going to have happen for each chapter up to the end of this story, so I just have to get around to writing it. Be patient and I'll get around to updating A.S.A.P. I hae to update 'Love and War' and then I'm finally going to start my new story. Then I'll update 'Memories' and then whichever story I'm in the mood to write.

As always, please review.


	18. Decisions

Shelby was sitting in a large, wood and leather chair in front of her boss's desk. Her boss, John, sat behind the desk in an even larger leather chair. They were talking about Shelby's latest piece of work which were a group of pictures of Scott and Jena together; the theme was family.

"Your latest pictures were very moving, Shelby," John said and walked from behind the desk.

"Thank you," Shelby replied with a smile.

"You're welcome," He said and picked up one of the pictures. "Now, I recognize the girl as your daughter but who is the man?"

"He's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? I wasn't aware you had a boyfriend."

"Yeah," Shelby replied and was confused as to why he cared so much. "Why?"

"Well," John said. "I was always hoping that me and you had a future."

John rested one of his hands on Shelby shoulder and slowly started to move it lower, towards Shelby's chest. Shelby smacked his hand away from her and stood up from the chair. She moved away from him and almost hugged herself.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shelby asked, clearly appalled.

"What?" John asked innocently with open arms.

Shelby was disgusted. John was only in his mid-thirties and he was actually still pretty attractive but he was still her boss.

"You were just hitting on me," Shelby stated.

"Don't over react, Shelby. You were practically begging me to be with you after you came back from that trip," John said referring to how Shelby was sucking up to him when she came home from Horizon late.

"Yeah, I was sucking up to you so I wouldn't loose my job."

"And you didn't, did you? You can keep your job as long as you wish," John said but Shelby could tell that there was a 'but' coming in that sentence. "But, if you want to keep your job, you have to make me happy with you. The little, revealing shirts, short skirts or tight pants you wear are very nice, but I want to see more of you, Shelby. I want to see all of you."

Shelby was taken aback by his suggestion. She was with Scott and even if she wasn't, she would never do anything with John. He was her boss. One is not suppose to sleep with their boss or be hit on by their boss.

"What do you say?" John asked with arched eye brows.

"I quit," Shelby said and barely had to think twice about her decision.

With her final words, Shelby stormed out of the John's office. The thought of what happened disgusted her. She was happy she quit, as long as she didn't have to work for him anymore. But, there was one problem, Shelby no longer had a job and she still had to support herself and Jena.

Shelby walked to her desk and started to grab her things.

"Shelby, think about this. If you quit, how are you going to pay your bills?" John asked as if he had read Shelby's mind. "How are you going to support your daughter?"

"I'll figure something out," Shelby retorted and pushed past John.

Shelby walked out of the building and got into her car. Before she started the car, a sigh left her lips. She had no idea what she was going to do. Shelby shook her head, rubbed her eyes and drove home. The drive wasn't long but it was silent. Shelby thought to herself about what she was going to do money wise and how she was going to survive.

She felt completely lost.

* * *

After about a fifteen minute drive, Shelby pulled into her driveway and turned off her car. The entire drive home still didn't give her enough time to think of what she was going to do. She had so many things going through her mind right then and she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. Shelby resisted the urge. She got out of her car and slowly walked into her small house.

Shelby looked around the silent house. Jena was at school so Shelby was left alone. She was actually, kind of, grateful for Jena not being home for she had no idea how she was going to explain to her why she was home three hours earlier than she usually was.

Shelby needed someone to talk to so she racked her mind and thought of someone she could vent to. Her mind stopped on Scott. She knew he had the day off so she picked up her house phone and dialed his number from memory. After two rings, Scott's voice came over the other line.

"Hey," Scott said and sounded pleased to be hearing from her.

"Hey," Shelby replied with an unsteady voice.

"What's wrong?" Scott asked, concerned.

"Nothing," Shelby said as she gained control over her voice. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"I can tell by the tone of your voice."

"It's nothing."

"If it was nothing then how come I could tell something was wrong so easily?"

"'Cause you know me too well."

"Shel, tell me," Scott said, sweetly.

Shelby tried to think of a good way to tell Scott that she had quit her job but she couldn't.

Shelby took a deep breath and said, "I quit my job."

"You what?" Scott asked loudly, clearly surprised but he quickly quieted himself. "But you loved that job."

"Yeah, I did but I didn't love my boss. Especially, not the way he wanted me to."

"What do you mean?"

"He hit on me today and then said a bunch of bullshit basically saying that if I don't sleep with him that my career will suffer," Shelby explained briefly. "So, I quit."

"That's good."

"Good? How is that good, Scott? I don't have a job."

"And now there's nothing to stop you from moving in with me," Scott said.

Shelby paused before she responded to what Scott had just said. She wanted to be with Scott, true, but moving down there to live with him? Shelby wasn't sure she was ready for that and she wasn't sure Jena would be able to handle that either.

"Scott," Shelby began.

"Shelby, I'm sick of only being able to see you and Jena every other weekend," Scott cut her off.

"I'm tired of not being able to see you on a daily basis too but I can't just take Jena and move down there."

"Why not?"

"It would be a big change. Everything she knows is up here."

"Will you at least think about it?" Scott asked.

"Yes," Shelby said with a sigh. "I'll think about it."

"Good. Well, I have to go now. I love you."

"I'll talk to you later. I love you."

Neither of them said 'bye'. After saying 'I love you' they both hung up and went back to what they were doing. Scott had to go visit Susan and Shelby went into her room.

She laid down on her bed and a sigh left her lips. She was seriously thinking about Scott's offer but she couldn't just take Jena and bring her to a whole new place. Shelby realized that she didn't really have much of a choice though. She had no job and therefore couldn't pay for her house or to support Jena.

Shelby's eyes slowly closed and her mind cleared of everything she was thinking about. She let sleep wash over her for the short time she could.

* * *

After a couple of hours, Shelby was woken up by her cell phone ringing. Shelby's eyes opened but she still didn't want to answer her phone for she wanted to go back to sleep. She knew better than to ignore her calls though. She reached next to her and grabbed her phone. She saw that it was Daisy calling and flipped open her phone.

"What?" She asked, obviously not sounding happy about being awake.

"Were you asleep?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah."

"Why were you sleeping? Aren't you suppose to be at work."

"I quit today. And before you ask, no, I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Oh. Well, if you want me to call back later then I can go," Daisy said.

"No," Shelby replied. "What did you have to tell me."

"I have to move."

"What?" Shelby asked and shot up off her bed. "Where to?"

"St. Louis."

"So you're going to be moving by Scott."

"Yeah."

"Why are you moving?"

"Me and Jason have to move down there. That's where our branch of the company is moving."

Shelby understood what Daisy meant. Her and Jason worked for a specific branch of a big, Scientific company. Daisy and Jason knew they were going to be moving soon but no one realized just how soon. Shelby wasn't expecting it but she thought it could work as an advantage.

"That's actually kind of good," Shelby said.

"What? How?" Daisy asked.

"Well, I was talking to Scott earlier and I told him how I quit and he asked me to move in with him."

"Okay," Daisy said, sounding kind of confused.

"Well, I told him that I couldn't because I would be taking Jena away from everything she knew but if you guys move down there too then I wouldn't be," Shelby and sounded eager but then quickly relaxed. "Who am I kidding? I can't move in with Scott."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't put Jena through all that."

"But you can put Jena through hardly ever seeing her father and going down there every other weekend," Daisy said in a contradicting voice.

"Daisy," Shelby said.

"Don't 'Daisy' me. You know I'm right. You're having her suffer more now with the current situation then you would be if you guys moved down there."

Shelby sighed. She knew what Daisy was saying right then was probably true but she was still very apprehensive about moving in with Scott. She wasn't sure why didn't want to move in with Scott but she didn't. She was using Jena as an excuse but she knew she wasn't the real reason why she didn't want to move in with Scott. Jena would probably be thrilled if they moved in with Scott.

"Or maybe Jena isn't really the reason why you don't want to move in with him," Daisy said.

"Do you have telepathy or something?" Shelby asked with a small chuckle.

"No, I just know you," Daisy replied with a chuckle. "Why don't you want to move in with him?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, you better figure that one out, Shelby."

"I know."

"You have a week to decide. We're moving then and I want an answer before I go."

"Fine."

"I have to go now. I'll talk to you later and I want you to think about why you don't want to move in with him."

"I said fine," Shelby said.

"Uh-huh," Daisy said with a smirk and hung up.

They never said 'good bye' to each other. They never have and they never will. They always just had an understanding on that situation and knew when the other was done talking. They never really saw a point in saying 'bye'.

Shelby put her cell phone down and she started to think about what Daisy had said. It was true, that there was another reason, besides Jena, for Shelby not wanting to move in with Scott. It was similar to why she left him all those years ago; she was afraid. Not of anything imparticular but she was afraid of living with him. She was afraid of such a commitment. Shelby had no idea why she felt that way but she did.

Shelby sat back down on her bed and a sigh left her lips. She needed to figure out what she was going to do. Especially if she only had until the end of the week.

_Decisions, Decisions, Decisions, _Shelby thought to herself.

* * *

After several days, Shelby still hadn't figured out what she was going to do. She knew she had to decide on what she was going to do but she had no idea how to figure everything out. Daisy, Jason and Scott all wanted her to move in with Scott and Shelby, in a way, wanted that too.

But it wasn't Shelby who she was worrying about, it was Jena. Shelby knew that she should ask her daughter about what she wanted to do but that would, also, involve telling her that she lost her job. Shelby didn't know how to tell five-year-old about something so complex as the situation. Then again, she didn't know how to tell her about Scott being her Father either and she was able to do that.

Shelby took a deep breath and walked over to Jena, who was sitting on the couch, in the living room, watching _The Little Mermaid_. Shelby sat down next to her daughter on the couch but Jena barely noticed, she was too involved in the movie.

"Sweety," Shelby said. "Do you think we can stop the movie so I can talk to you real quick?"

Jena looked at her Mom and one could tell that she didn't want to stop the movie but she nodded, agreeing with her Mother's request.

Shelby stopped the movie and turned to Jena. She fiercely tried to think of something good to say but she couldn't think of anything. Instead, she just told the real story, without changing anything, besides something that would help Jena understand better.

"Jena, I lost my job. Do you know what that means?" Shelby asked.

Jena nodded and said, "But your job is what got us money."

"Yes, that's our problem. We won't be able to stay in our house without me having my job."

"So where we gonna go?"

"Well, your Dad asked us to move in with him," Shelby said and paused for a moment before continuing. "What do you think about that idea?"

"Move in with Daddy and leave Auntie Daisy and Jason here?" Jena asked and sounded upset about leaving Daisy.

"That's another thing. Auntie Daisy and Jason have to move down by Daddy anyway."

"So, we wouldn't be leaving them?"

"No," Shelby said with a small shake of her head and a small smile. "We won't be leaving them. But, even if we don't move in with your Daddy, Auntie Daisy and Jason have to move down there."

Jena looked like she was deep in thought. She knew she didn't want to leave Daisy and Jason but if they were moving down there anyway then she wouldn't be leaving them. If they moved in with Scott then they would be staying with them. And Daisy and Jason weren't the only reason Jena would be happy with moving, she would be with her Dad as well.

Jena turned to Shelby and asked, "Do you wanna go, Mommy?"

Shelby thought about Jena's question before she responded with, "Us moving is up to you, Jena."

"Do you wanna go?" Jena repeated sternly. She could be very pushy when she wanted to be.

"Part of me does but part of me doesn't."

"Why don't you?"

"I don't know," Shelby replied with a small shake of her head.

"If I wanted to go with Daddy would you be mad?"

"No."

"Good," Jena replied quickly and nodded. "I wanna go."

"Are you sure?" Shelby asked.

"Yeah. I wanna live with Daddy."

Shelby nodded but she wasn't sure why. Now the decision was completely up to her. Everyone wanted her to move in with Scott but herself and she wasn't even sure why. Shelby still didn't know what she was trying to avoid but she knew it had to do with Scott.

* * *

"Okay, you win, I'm moving in with him," Shelby said, while talking on the phone with Daisy.

"Don't sound so happy," Daisy warned sarcastically.

"I'm happy," Shelby stated.

"You don't sound like it."

"Maybe I will sound more happy after I tell Scott."

"You still haven't told him your decision?"

"No."

"Then what are you doing on the phone with me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Call that boy and tell him. I'm sure he'll be very happy," Daisy said with a smirk that was evident even just by her voice.

"Fine. I'll talk to you later," Shelby said as a smile crept onto her face and she hung up her phone.

Shelby was going to put the phone down and call Scott later but decided against it. She turned her phone back on, dialed his number from memory and held it to her ear, waiting for him to answer.

"Hello?" Scott asked from the other line.

"Hi," Shelby said.

"Hey, Shel. What's up?"

"Is that offer still open?"

"If you mean the one about you and Jena moving in with me then hell yes."

"Okay," Shelby said with a smile. "Then I'm taking you up on it."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with Daisy and Jason moving down here too, would it?" Scott asked.

"They told you?"

"Daisy called me," Scott admitted. "Ya know what, though? I don't care what your excuse is. The point is, you're still moving in with me and I won't be stuck seeing my daughter and love of my life only every other weekend."

Shelby could tell that Scott was happy she agreed. She knew there was a smile on his face which caused one to creep onto her face. Shelby was starting to forget all about her being nervous and being afraid to move in with Scott and was just becoming happy about it.

"Well, I still have to sell my house so I don't know how soon it will be," Shelby said.

"Will you kill me if I tell you that's already taken care of?" Scott asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I kind of already put your house up for sale. I hope that's okay. And there's already an interested buyer."

"Don't they want to look at the house?"

"Yeah. They actually want to look at it tomorrow if that's okay," Scott said.

"Yeah, that's fine," Shelby said with a smile. "So if everything goes well with them then I should be with you in, like, a week."

"Exactly."

"Okay, well, I guess I should start getting everything together then, huh?"

"Probably."

"I'll talk to you later then. Love you," Shelby said.

"I love you too. Bye." Scott said.

"Bye."

Shelby hung up her phone and looked around her room. She had a lot that she had to pack and that was without any of Jena's things added in. Shelby sighed as she realized just how much she had to do.

She stood up from her bed and started to pack her things.

* * *

"So you're actually moving in with him?" Daisy asked Shelby as she was packing her car.

"Yes," Shelby replied. "I don't really have a choice anymore anyway. My house is sold."

"I know. Where'd the change of heart come from?"

"Well, Jena wanted to move in with him. And, the closer it came to me moving in with him, the more I liked the idea."

"Oh," Daisy said and added one of the boxes in the trunk.

"Yeah," Shelby said and added the last bag to the trunk.

"Is this all?"

"Yeah. The movers are getting everything else this weekend."

"So this is goodbye, then."

"Only until you guys are down there. And, hey, since when do we say goodbye?"

"True," Daisy said with a smile. "I'll see you in a few days."

"See ya then," Shelby said and got in her car.

Shelby looked back at Jena in the back seat and asked, "You ready to go?"

"Yep!" Jena said with a huge smile and a nod.

"Okay then."

Shelby waved to Daisy and pulled out of her drive way. Before she drove away, she took a final look at her house and nodded to herself. She drove down the street and was heading towards the free way where she would go to Scott's house.

* * *

After putting Jena to bed, Shelby walked into Scott's room with him following. He had a huge smile on his face and wanted to take full advantage of them being together.

"Scott, we still have to get the rest of my stuff out of the car," Shelby said, only half serious.

"It can wait until morning," Scott contradicted.

Shelby thought about that for a moment and realized that Scott was right. She wanted to take advantage of them being together as well. She didn't say anything, only nodded and Scott knew exactly what it meant.

Scott walked over to Shelby and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Shelby wrapped her arms around his neck as Scott slid his arms around her back. The kiss grew more intense and they fell backwards on the bed, taking advantage of living together.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off thank you all so much for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy, ScottandShelbyfan, Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess, 2008ccampbell, sweetgirl,Lavender Brown-Halliwell, mary-023, angel, Saun,HCLvr, SethxSummer4Evah, and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

Secondly, I'm SO sorry this took so long to get up. I had several court dates that I had to go to and that got be in a big slump and then school got me completly swamped. I have finals coming up and everything is just crazy for me right now. I hope to get my next updates up quicker than this one took. My next update with be my next "All Because of a Play" chapter. I'll update this again after I update "Memories" again. I have a strange order for my updates.

Another thing, I'm not very pleased with this chapter. It seemed pretty boring but it was a necessary chapter. I hate when I have those where I just have things that need to be done but none of those things are fun. My next one for this story will be very dramatic though so hopefully I can make up for this one.

Please review! I would like to how much I screwed up. ;)


	19. Living Conditions

Scott woke up to scent of fresh coffee filling the air. Usually, the coffee didn't wake him up for he was sleeping in his room with the door shut but last night, he slept on the couch. Shelby had the bed to herself and Scott was stuck on the couch for she said that she couldn't sleep next to him after the argument they had.

The couple had been living together for only a little over three weeks and Scott had already slept on the couch 9 times. The two didn't work well together when they were living with each other. It was fight after fight, night after night. They were lucky if they went 4 days without screaming at each other. They both knew that it was pathetic but it had happened one-the-less.

Scott got off the couch and walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee and he saw Shelby pouring herself a cup. He looked at her and she only glared at him in response. She walked out of the way after adding her cream and sugar to her cup so Scott could get his own.

Scott grabbed a mug and poured himself a cup of coffee. He took a drink from it and looked over at Shelby, who was still glaring at him. The fight they had the night before still had her upset.

The fight was about Scott seeing Anita. It was a simple lunch together and they were only talking but it had Shelby upset anyway. She thought Scott was cheating on her with Anita. In her mind, she had good reasoning for thinking that too. After all, he cheated on Anita with her so what was to stop him from cheating on her with Anita?

"Shelby, nothing happened," Scott stated.

"How do I know that?" Shelby asked.

"Here's a crazy idea: you can believe me. And maybe trust me for a change."

Scott was growing angrier by second. Shelby was upset at the thought of the lunch but Scott was angry because Shelby wasn't trusting him. In his mind, she had no reason not to trust him.

When Shelby didn't respond to Scott's comment, he shook his head and left the kitchen. He walked into the bedroom to start getting ready for work. His simply going to work was starting to anger Shelby as well for his partner was Anita. There was almost nothing he could do that didn't upset Shelby.

Scott took his clothes out and put them on the bed so they would be there when he got out of the shower. He didn't have any extra time that morning for him to be behind in getting ready. If he didn't have everything ready, he would be late and he knew it. Scott grabbed a towel from the closet and took a quick shower.

When he walked back into the room, his clothes were no longer on the bed. He sighed and knew that Shelby had put them back. It wasn't the first time that Shelby had put his clothes away again.

"Shelby!" He yelled. "I had the clothes out for a reason."

"I know," Shelby yelled back from the living room.

Scott walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. He met Shelby in the living room, still only having a towel wrapped loosely around his waist. If Shelby hadn't been so angry with him, that sight alone would have been enough to make Shelby surrender any fight but it was barely phasing her then.

"You did that on purpose," Scott stated. "Just because you knew it would make me late for work."

"You sound real eager to go to work, Scott," Shelby said. "Do you want to see Anita that badly?"

Scott closed his eyes and clenched his jaw to stop himself from saying something that he would probably regret later. He didn't have time to fight with Shelby and he really didn't want to. If she wasn't going to believe him than there was nothing he could say that he hasn't already said that would make her believe him.

"I give up with you," Scott said.

Before Shelby had a chance to respond in any way, he turned around and made his way back to the bedroom. He had to move double time in order to get to work on time. He grabbed the clothes and got dressed as quickly as humanly possible. He put on his shoes and socks and threw the tie around his neck but not tying it. He didn't have time for it right then. He figured he could tie it when he got to work. He knew that everyone at work would understand him being a little rushed.

Scott walked out of the bedroom, passed Shelby in the living room, grabbed his car keys and left the house. He slammed the door behind him and walked quickly to his car. He started the car and pulled out of the drive way in a rush. He looked at the time and saw that he only had five minutes to get to work and it usually took him almost fifteen minutes to get there.

"Shit," He swore under his breath.

* * *

Shelby sighed as the door slammed. She kept flipping through the channels, trying to find something on TV to get her mind off of Scott. She turned the TV off with a huff as she realized that nothing would stop her from thinking about Scott and his lunch with Anita. She wasn't sure why it bothered her so much but it did. Shelby was usually a very confident girl and she normally didn't worry about her men cheating on her but she did with Scott. He was the only guy who could make her worry about such things.

Shelby stood up from the chair and looked over at the couch where it was still very evident that someone had slept there. The blanket was still sprawled over the couch and the pillows were still at the head of it. Shelby sighed softly and walked over to it to start putting the stuff away. She folded blanket and threw it over the top of the couch and moved the pillows so they looked like they belonged there.

Shelby sat down on the couch, grabbed her cup of coffee from the table and took a large drink of it.

* * *

Scott walked into the police department and walked over to his desk, where he found a stack of papers waiting for him. Anita was already sitting at her desk which was directly across from his. She had a simple, grey pants suit on and her black hair was down as usual. She wore minimal make-up, as always. She gave Scott a confused look as she looked at his un-tied tie.

"Rushed morning?" She asked.

"Huh?" He asked and then noticed her looking at the tie. "Oh, yeah."

Scott tied the tie quickly and looked back down at the stack of papers. He opened the file folder and saw that it was the paper work from the case him and Anita had just closed.

The case had brought back bad memories for Scott. It was a sexually abusive step-mother who was abusing her step-son. The teenage boy who was being sexually abused finally got tired of it after a few months had filed a report against his step-mom. The boy did something Scott never had the guts to do. The case meant something more than most cases did because of the simple fact that it was practically his life. He was happy when the women was being taken away in hand cuffs after they had enough evidence to convict her.

"You okay?" Anita asked, seeing that Scott was clearly thinking about something.

"Yeah, I'm just remembering the case," Scott replied, which was partially true.

Despite all the years of Anita and Scott working together and being together, Scott still never told her about his past with Elaine. She knew about Horizon and everything but he told her he was there simply because of the drugs.

"So, why were you so rushed this morning?" Anita asked as she looked through her own stack of papers.

"Because Shelby messed with my order of things just to get me mad," Scott replied, scanning his papers.

Scott, for the first couple of weeks, would avoid talking about Shelby to Anita but once he found out that Anita didn't mind, he was okay with it. Anita accepted Scott's choice and she was okay with Shelby so she was okay with hearing about Scott's problems and about his relationship. It was like how it used to be before they dated.

"Why would she do that?" She asked.

"Because she's pissed at me," Scott answered.

"Why?"

"Because of you actually," Scott teased with a smile. "She thinks I'm cheating on her with you. And it all got started because of how we had lunch together the other day."

"Do you want me to try and talk to her?"

"No, thanks. It would probably do more harm that good."

"If you say so," Anita said with a shrug.

The two stopped their discussion and got to their paper work. They both wanted it done as soon as they could have it done for paper work after a case was closed was probably the most boring part of being a detective. Yet for Scott, this paper work wouldn't boring, it would be a bad memory.

* * *

Shelby was sitting at the kitchen table with Daisy. They were both drinking cups of coffee and Shelby was completely stressed out. She knew that drinking coffee wasn't helping her situation but it was still the only thing she had been drinking since she woke up that morning. She had a full pot to herself save for the one cup Scott had before leaving.

"Shelby, you need to not worry about it so much," Daisy said.

"I know but I can't help it," Shelby said with a shrug.

"Why are you freaking out so badly? You've never done this with any of your other boyfriends."

"I know. Scott's the only one who can make me worry like this."

"Why don't you just take his word for it?" Daisy asked.

"Because he cheated on Anita after he had given her his word so what's to stop him from cheating on me?" Shelby asked back.

Daisy sighed with a shrug. She wanted to be supportive of her friend but she actually thought that it was silly. Scott had never cheated on Shelby before and she thought it was silly that Shelby thought he would. He loved her and he would never cheat on her. If Daisy could figure that out, why couldn't Shelby?

"Shelby, he's not going to cheat on you," Daisy stated, once again trying to make her friend believe her.

"I know," Shelby said with a sigh.

"Then what are you worrying about?"

"I don't know," Shelby replied, getting frustrated. "I don't know what's wrong with me."  
"Well, I don't know what to tell you," Daisy said and she really didn't. "I have to get back to work though, my lunch break is over. I will see you later."

Daisy stood up from the chair and put her cup of coffee in the sink. She looked back to Shelby with a smile. Shelby smiled in response and waved to Daisy who then left, leaving Shelby alone again.

Shelby looked at the time and saw that Jena should be getting home from school with in the nest few minutes. She sighed and stood up from the chair she was sitting in. She left her cup of coffee on the table, knowing that she would drinking more later and walked out of the kitchen. She walked out of the door and walked to the corner of the street so she could wait for Jena to get off the bus.

* * *

It was around 9:00 p.m. when Scott finally made it home after a long day of filling out paper work and then being generally bored. He turned off his car, stepped out and walked into the house. He was hoping that the day alone would have given Shelby enough time to cool down. He really wasn't in the mood to fight.

Scott walked through the door and closed it behind him. He walked directly to the bedroom and the first thing he did was take of his tie. He hated wearing one. He sat down on the bed as he was taking the tie off. Once he had it off, he tossed it next to him on the bed and Shelby walked in.

Scott looked at her but didn't say anything and then looked away.

"I'm sorry," Shelby said which made Scott look at her again. "I had no right to be angry at you. You've never done anything to me to make be think you would cheat on me so I'm sorry."

"You're right. I've never done anything that would make you think I would hurt you," Scott said and stood up from the bed, still looking at Shelby. "I never kept anything from you. I never ran out on you, leaving you without a word. I never kept our daughter from you. I never did a damn thing to make you not trust me and you still don't."

Scott was finally getting everything he was feeling out. He hated the fact that Shelby was always angry with him because he never did anything to make her think he would ever hurt her. If anything, he had the right to be angry with her for everything she put him through.

"Why?" Scot t asked, sounding lost. "Why don't you trust me?"

Shelby looked at Scott for a few moments. Actually, it wasn't even looking, it was glaring. She was completely ignoring that he asked why she didn't trust him and was only thinking about all of the bad things he pointed out to her. That had her anger flare right back up simply because she knew she screwed up and didn't need a constant reminder of it.

"I know I screwed up, Scott. I don't need you pointing it out," Shelby stated while crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I think I have the right to point out some of your screw ups right now, Shelby," Scott retorted. "You did so much more to me than I could ever do to you and you're the one mad at me constantly. You have no reason for thinking the things you think about me and you still do."

"No reason? You cheated on Anita with me so obviously you don't think cheating is that bad."

"I know cheating is bad. And I told you before we even had sex at Horizon that you were the one I loved and you were the one I wanted to be with, not Anita. Why can't you just believe me?"

"I just can't, Scott!" She said. "I don't know why but I just can't."

"And you think getting mad at me and us fighting all the time is going to help you be able to believe me?" Scott asked, nearly yelling.

"Will you not get so loud? Jena is asleep."

"No, I'm gonna get as loud as I want 'cause I think I finally have the right to yell back."

Shelby shook her head and walked out of the bedroom. She walked over to Jena's room and saw that she was still asleep. Shelby closed her door before Scott would have a chance to wake her up with his yelling. Shelby walked into the living room, trying to avoid the unavoidable fight between her and Scott.

Scott followed Shelby into the living room and said, "Oh yeah, running away again."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Shelby asked with a glare.

"Whenever you have a problem you run away from it, Shelby. You ran away from me when you got pregnant, you ran away from home before Horizon, all you know how to do is run away!"

"Scott, I already told you that I left you before because I was scared and I panicked. I thought you understood," Shelby said and sighed. "And as for running away from home before, you, of all people, should understand that I didn't want to go through that hell."

"I do understand that but running away doesn't solve your problems, Shelby. It never will."

"Oh yeah and fighting with you now is really solving our problems," Shelby said with sarcasm.

"Well, maybe if you would stop causing us so many problems," Scott said.

"I came in by you tonight to apologize and you're the one who started the fight. So don't give me the bull shit about all of this being my fault."

"I'm not saying all of it is but it sure is damn close to being all of it."

Shelby shook her head and rolled her eyes. She didn't want to deal with Scott and the fight at that moment. She wanted to just get out of there and go somewhere else. She didn't want to deal with anything, she wanted to escape.

Shelby walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. Scott followed and looked at her, still waiting for her to respond. Instead of responding, Shelby took her cup of coffee from earlier that day and put it into the sink. Scott still watched her.

"Nothing to say?" He asked.

"What do you want me to say, Scott?" Shelby asked back and looked to him. "You want me to say that I fucked up? Alright, I fucked up. You want me to say that all of this is my fault? Then fine, all of this is my fault. Can we just drop it already?"

"Of course, now you want to drop a fight when I'm the one with the winning argument," Scott commented.

"Ya know what? Screw this," Shelby said.

Shelby grabbed her coat and car keys and made her way for the door. Scott stopped her by grabbed her wrist and pulling her around. He wasn't too forceful with it but forceful enough to pull her back.

"Where are you going?" Scott asked.

"I'm leaving. I can't be here anymore," Shelby replied and shook her hand harshly to get away from Scott's grip.

"No, you don't get to be the one who runs away. Not this time," Scott stated and grabbed his car keys. "For once, I'm going to be the one who leaves, leaving you thinking."

Scott walked out the door and slammed it behind him. He got into his car, started it and pulled out of the drive way. He quickly drove down the street with anger still flowing through him.

* * *

Shelby sighed and felt her eyes start to burn with unshed tears. She didn't know what to do or say at that moment. There was nothing she could do to change any of the things she did to Scott in the past and there was nothing she could do to change the things she had said during their many fights.

Shelby fell onto the floor and let the tears that were dying to fall, come. The tears streamed down her face and she made no attempt to stop them. She let herself drown in self pity. She felt like, in a way, that she deserved how badly she was feeling at that moment but she also just wanted it to stop. Her heart hurt so badly and she felt so guilty for everything Scott had mentioned. She just hurt in everyway a person could hurt.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off thank you all so much for all the reviews from: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy, ScottandShelbyfan, Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess, 2008ccampbell, sweetgirl,Lavender Brown-Halliwell, mary-023, angel, Saun, HCLvr, SethxSummer4Evah,****CracKHeaDwitskillz,****LJSkywalker and jessmerrick.** I'm happy you all enjoy this story!

Okay, so I got this chapter up quickly. it was a pretty easy one for me to write and I had fun writing it. I tried to make it have lots of drama so let me know how I did 'cause I'm not sure if I did it well. I hope everyone enjoys it. I'm pretty sure I'll have a lot of people saying, 'I hope S&S will be okay' and all I have to say to that is: you'll just have to keep reading to find out.

Okay, so I think I'm going to be writing a new chapter in 'All Because Of A Play' next and then I'll do 'Haunted' and then I will be finishing 'Love and War'. That story has been going on for over a year now and I'm anticipating it's end.

As always, please review!


	20. A Life Long Love

Shelby blinked awake with the sun shining bright on her face through the window. She was lying in her bed on her side. She closed her eyes as she recalled the night before and the fight between her and Scott. She looked over to the other side of the bed and half expected Scott o be asleep next to her. She wanted the night before to be just a bad dream but she knew that it wasn't. It was real.

A sigh left her dry lips as she threw the blankets off of her. As if she woke up just in time, Jena came into the room and jumped on the bed next to Shelby.

"Mommy!" Jena nearly screamed. "Phone."

Jena handed Shelby the house phone. Shelby took the phone from her daughter with a puzzled expression. With any luck, it was Scott calling, but she highly doubted it.

"Hello?" Shelby said.

"Shelby, hi, it's Susan," Susan said from the other line of the phone.

"Hi, Susan."

"Hey, I was wondering if it would be okay if I took Jena out today and then she stayed over at my house tonight. It would be a nice chance to get to know her."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Shelby replied and didn't sounds very enthused.

"Is something wrong, Shelby?" Susan asked, obviously picking up on her tone.

"Your son and I got into a big fight last night," Shelby answered.

"Bigger than your previous ones?"

"You know about those?"

"Scott tells me everything."

"Is he, by any chance, at your place then?" Shelby asked with a little bit of hope showing in her voice.

"No, I'm sorry, sweetie. Did he leave last night?" Susan asked.

"Yeah after the fight," Shelby answered.

She leaned back again as another sigh left her lips. Once Susan called, Shelby thought Scott might have been there but her thoughts disappeared and her hopes of it were crushed when she heard that he didn't go there after all.

"I'm sorry," Susan said apologetically. "Would you rather I not take Jena then?"

"No," Shelby replied. "Taking Jena is probably the best thing for her right now. She doesn't need to be here for all that drama between me and her Dad."

"That's very true. Well, what time would you like me to come and pick her up?"

"When ever is good for you is fine."

"How about an hour? I think it would be good for you to be a lone for a little while," Susan said.

"Sounds good to me," Shelby replied. "Oh, and, Susan, thanks for listening to my complaining."

"It was no problem, Shelby. I'll see you soon," Susan replied with a smile. "Bye."

"Bye."

Shelby sat up in her bed again and looked to Jena, who was looking to her in a questioning manner.

"What's goin' on?" Jena asked.

"How do you feel about spending the day with Grandma and then sleeping over at her house?" Shelby asked with a smile.

"You mean, she really wants to see me?" Jena asked as her face started to glow with happiness.

"Well of course she wants to see you," Shelby replied. "You're her grand daughter."

Shelby couldn't keep a smile off of her face at that moment. Jena was too adorable for her not to smile. She was so naïve at times. Especially about people liking her. Then again, she was only five years old so it was to be expected.

"When's she gonna be here?" Jena asked.

"In about an hour," Shelby answered. "Come on, we have to get you ready."

Jena practically jumped off of the bed and ran into her room. She started to pack a bag for herself before Shelby was even fully out of bed. Shelby walked into Jena's room and chuckled as she watched her daughter pack. No one could ever say that Jena relied on people. She was a very self-dependent child.

* * *

Scott woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. He was, once again, asleep on a couch but it wasn't his couch. Scott groaned in a sort of protest at being woken up and heard Daisy's voice come through the air.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hey, Daisy," Shelby replied from the other line of the phone softly.

"Shelby, you sound like hell. What happened?" Daisy asked, even though she knew very well what had happened between her and Scott.

"I don't really want to talk about it," Shelby replied and sounded tired. "Hey, um, have you seen Scott recently?"

Daisy bit her bottom lip as she walked into the living room and sat down in a chair by the couch. She looked over at Scott and kind of glared at him before she looked away from him and towards the ground.

"No, I haven't seen him," Daisy replied, completely lying to Shelby.

"Okay, well, if you see him can you tell him that I'm looking for him?" Shelby asked and sounded like she wanted to cry.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

"Thanks," Shelby replied and hung up the phone.

Daisy hung up her phone and held it in her hand before looking back to Scott. Daisy couldn't believe that she had just lied to Shelby. However, Daisy promised Scott that she wouldn't tell her where he was. Scott showed up at her house the night before, completely filled with anger and told Daisy the whole story before asking to stay there for the night. Daisy obliged and let him sleep on the couch.

"I can't believe I just lied to my best friend," Daisy said, her voice sounding a little distant.

"Thanks," Scott said .

"Yeah, well, you owe me big time," Daisy said with a deep sigh.

"I know. I just can't see her now."

"Well, you can't avoid her forever."

"I know, I know. But I can for a little while."

"Why don't you just see her and talk to her?" Daisy asked with such simplicity.

"And say what? 'I'm sorry I put you through the hell you put me through almost six years ago'?" Scott asked back.

"Sure," Daisy said with a shrug. "I don't know. But I know that I'm not going to lie to her again. You have to talk to her Scott."

"I know!" Scott stated, almost yelling.

"Then, stop your bitching and do it already!" Daisy retorted forcefully.

Daisy walked away from him. She knew that they were going to end up getting into a big argument if they continued talking and she didn't want that. Daisy walked into her bedroom and left Scott alone. She knew that he was going to go back to her eventually. Whether Scott would like to admit it or not, Daisy knew that he couldn't live without Shelby. The sooner he realized that, the sooner he would go back home.

* * *

Scott looked towards the direction Daisy walked and a sigh left his lips. He wanted to go home, he did, but he didn't want another fight. He was tired of fighting with Shelby over nothing. He didn't think that going home would cause another fight but he did think that there would be another soon. But, that was a part of being in a relationship, wasn't it? Fights happened and there was nothing either of the people could do to prevent them.

Scott threw the blanket off of him. He moved so he was sitting on the couch and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He ran one of his hands through his hair as another sigh left his lips. Scott looked off to nowhere and simply thought about everything and anything he could say when he finally went back home.

_Home,_ Scott thought. Scott didn't realize until then that it really was a home, not just a house. The life he had with Shelby and Jena, in that house, really made it a home. Shelby was part of his life, a part that he couldn't afford for loose; a part that he didn't want to loose, not again. Scott wanted Shelby forever, for the rest of their lives. He always wanted her there. Not as a belonging or even as a girlfriend but as a partner, as a wife.

Scott stood up abruptly and made his way to the door. Scott walked out of Daisy's house and practically ran to his car. He got in on the passenger side and opened his glove compartment. Scott moved several things around until he finally found what he was looking for. He grabbed a little, black, velvet box smiled to himself. He opened the box to find the ring that he had from almost six years ago.

The ring was a white gold band with 3 square diamonds placed carefully on it. A large one in the middle and a smaller one on each side. Scott remembered when he first bought the ring and the feeling he had inside of him that day. He was feeling the same way he felt then; like he always wanted Shelby there.

Scott smiled to himself. He closed the box and after a few moments, kissed it.

* * *

Daisy was looking out her bedroom window and saw Scott in his car. She saw the box and smiled to herself. She knew what he was looking at. Daisy had helped Scott pick that ring out almost six years before. She didn't know he had kept it though. She nodded in a sort of approval and moved away from the window.

"There ya go, jocko," Daisy said to herself just as much to Scott.

Daisy walked out of her bedroom and made her way towards the living room. She carefully rested herself on the door frame between the living room and the dining room. She was waiting for Scott to come back. Daisy knew what he got from the car so she wasn't going to bother to ask but she did, however, want to know what brought on the sudden change.

Scott walked back in the house with the little, black, velvet box in one of his hands. He was completely oblivious to Daisy standing in the doorway. He had a huge smile on his face as he moved quickly around the living room, grabbing what things he had brought with him.

"It take it that went well," Daisy commented.

Scott stopped his movements and looked to Daisy with confusion written all over his face.

"You going to the car," Daisy added, hoping to clear up the confusion on Scott's face.

"Oh!" Scott exclaimed. "Yeah. Very well."

"So, I don't have to lie to Shelby anymore," Daisy assumed.

"Actually, you do."

"What? I thought you were going home!"

Scott closed his eyes when Daisy practically yelled and had to stop himself from doing a 'wow' type of whistle.

"I am going home," Scott answered. "But not until tonight. I have to work first but I don't want her to know I stayed the night here."

"Fine," Daisy said and sounded upset. "But you better get your ass home tonight because you are not sleeping here again."

"Deal," Scott said and stood up from the couch after putting his shoes on. "Thanks."

Scott turned and looked at himself in the mirror on the wall. He was still wearing his work clothes from the day before save for the tie, which he left at home the night before. He didn't mind not wearing a tie though. No one at work would bother him much about it anyway. They would all understand.

"So, what brought on this sudden change?" Daisy asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, where should I start?" Scott asked and looked at her with a small chuckle.

"The beginning would be good."

Scott sat back down on the couch as Daisy followed his lead and sat down on the chair next to the couch. She watched Scott carefully and waited for him to speak. He didn't know where to start. Daisy said the beginning but the beginning was 7 years ago when they first were together.

Scott smiled softly to himself and said, "I was sitting on your couch and thought about when I was going to go home and it hit me that the life I had with Shelby, really made that house a home. And I basically came to the conclusion that I always wanted her there and I always wanted that life with her. So, I went out to my car and grabbed the ring from before when I was going to ask her."

"Why did you keep the ring?" Daisy asked carefully. "I mean, after so many years, most guys would have returned it."

"I know but I didn't want to," Scott answered and looked to Daisy with the smile still on his face. "I guess, part of me always hoped that Shelby would come back to me and that we could live that life together."

"And now you can," Daisy added with a smile.

"Exactly. And I'm not going to let it pass me by again."

Daisy patted Scott on the knee with the smile on her face growing a little. She was proud of Scott. He finally realized what she and everyone else knew for a long time; that he needed Shelby and that he loved her too much to loose her. It was sweet, really. Daisy had to admit that she was happy for them.

"Good thinking, Barringer," Daisy approved with a nod.

"Thanks, Daisy," Scott said with a grin.

Daisy grinned back to him and shrugged her shoulders lightly. She was giving her best 'what?' expression as if she didn't say something slightly degrading to him. Daisy didn't say another thing before turning on her heels and walked back into her bedroom. She was going to let Scott finish getting ready for work and leave.

* * *

Scott walked into work more than a little late. He sat down at his desk and started to flip through the file folder that was waiting for him.

"Was there another fight with the girlfriend or something?' Anita asked from her desk with a cup of coffee in her small hands.

"Huh?" Scott questioned as he comprehended what she had asked. "Oh, no. Well, not really. There was a fight last night, which is why I didn't sleep at my house last night but things are different today."

"How so?"

"I'm gonna ask Shelby to marry me tonight," Scott stated with a smile.

Anita coughed as she nearly choked on her coffee upon hearting Scotts statement. She looked at him with wide eyes as she was nearly overcome with shock.

"Are you serious?" Anita asked, the shock evident in her voice and on her face.

"No, I was joking," Scott replied sarcastically. "Yes, I'm serious."

"Wow," Anita said, her voice sounding a little distant but she quickly recovered. "So, did you get the ring?"

Scott nodded. He reached his hand in his pocket and grabbed the velvet box. He pulled it out and rested it on his desk as he looked out the window.

Anita grabbed the box and opened it. A quick gasp escaped her lips at the sight of the gorgeous ring.

"Scott, it's beautiful," Anita said. "When did you find the time to go shopping for an engagement ring though?"

"Six years ago," Scott answered.

"So, since before she left you," Anita said and remembered how Scott had found out that Shelby was gone when he came to purpose and she wasn't there. "You kept the ring this whole time?"

"Yeah," Scott said with a sigh as she looked to Anita. "I should've gotten rid of it when I was with you…"

"No. I'm glad you kept a hold onto that bit of hope you had. You and Shelby are together and happy now. And I'm pretty content with Dave."

Dave was Anita's new boyfriend. After having not been with Scott for almost two months, Anita realized that she had to move on and she's happy that she did. Anita and Scott talked to each other and were friends and partners just like they were before they ever dated. They both agreed that they were both better off that way. After all, one should always keep their personal lives separate from their professional lives.

"I'm happy for you, Scott," Anita said with a smile.

"Thanks," Scott replied, even though he wasn't fully expecting her to be happy about it.

Scott thought that Anita would hate the idea of him marrying Shelby. After all, he did leave her for Shelby. However, Anita seemed truly happy for him. She was happy with her new lover, no doubt about that but he still thought she would be bitter about the situation considering everything that happened. But she wasn't. She really was happy for them.

* * *

Shelby walked out of the bathroom with nothing but a lilac colored towel wrapped around her body. Her blonde hair looked darker than usual for it was still wet and it was wavy. She didn't know why or how but her hair started to get natural waves in it in the few years before. Shelby didn't mind the waves though so she worry about them.

Shelby walked into hers and Scotts room and rummaged through her dresser to find comfortable clothes for her to wear. After several moments, she got dressed into grey tie-string pants and a black, formfitting, V-neck shirt. She was trying to impress anyone, she wasn't having anyone over and she sure as hell wasn't going out so she didn't really about what she looked like. She did, however, still wear a bra for she couldn't bring herself not to. It was a personal thing that she had.

Shelby walked out of her bedroom and down the hallway until she reached the living room. She sighed deeply at how empty the house was and sat down on the couch. She pulled her legs under her and sat Indian style with her arms hanging over the side.

Shelby reached her hand out and grabbed the book she was in the middle of. She opened Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard and continued to read from where she left off before. It was a romantic book but Shelby didn't mind because it had a good story away from the romance.

Shelby got so involved in the story that she forgot about the world around her. A new position, an house and a half and over 100 pages later, her head shot up from the book as she heard the front door open. Shelby kept the book in her lap as she turned her head towards the direction of the small hallway that led to the front door.

Scott walked through the door way and into the living room with a mix between a happy and a scared expression on his face.

"Scott," Shelby breathed.

"Hey," He said. "Look, about last night—"

"Just forget about it," Shelby said as she closed her book and set it down on the table next to her.

"I don't want to forget it," Scott stated.

Shelby gave Scott a confused look. She didn't understand why he wouldn't want to forget about something like that.

"I don't want to forget about it because it helped me realize how much I love you and how much I want you," Scott said and took a few steps closer to Shelby. "It helped me finally admit to myself that I want to be with you for the rest of my life."

Scott was basically pouring his heart out. He came into the house having no clue what he was going to say. But, once he saw Shelby, it was as if the words just came to him. He didn't have to think anymore, he just had to feel and let his emotions and love for Shelby do all of the talking.

"Shelby, I love you," Scott stated with a small smile. "That's why, when I say this, I know I'm not making the mistake of my life like most men are."

Scott grabbed the little, black, velvet box out of his pocket and held it in his hand for moment. He looked at the box as an almost nervous smile crept onto his face. He looked back at Shelby but she wasn't looked at him anymore, she was staring at the box he held in his hand.

"I don't really know how to say," Scott said and took a few more steps towards Shelby.

Shelby stayed on the couch as Scott walked closer. She looked at him once he was in front of her. Her gaze followed his movements as he went down into one knee in front of her. Shelby, at that point, knew what he was doing and she had to stop herself from screaming like a little girl. Instead, she decided to let a smile creep onto her face.

"Shelby, will you marry me?" Scott asked in the most sincere tone possible as he opened the box in front of her.

Shelby glanced at the beautiful ring before her before quickly returning her gaze to the beautiful man before her. She opened her mouth to say 'yes' but nothing came out. She swallowed twice and willed her voice to return. The smile stayed on her face through out this whole ordeal.

"Yes," She finally breathed.

Scotts smile grew enormously and he pulled Shelby into a hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the hug. He picked her up off the couch and spun them in a circle before putting her back down onto the ground. He gazed down at her with loving eyes and she could do nothing but do the same to him.

Scott let go of Shelby and opened the box again for it had closed when he hugged her. He took the ring out of the box and lightly took Shelby's left hand. Scott slid the ring carefully onto her ring finger and returned his gaze back to Shelby with a huge grin on his face.

Shelby looked down at the ring on her finger and the smile on her face grew. She felt like a little girl again. She was completely happy and almost giddy but above all, she felt completely in love. Shelby looked back to Scott with the smile still on her face.

The two leaned into each other and shared a passionate kiss. There was no need or desire behind the kiss. The kiss was full of love, plain and simple. When the parted, after several moments, they simply gazed into each others eyes.

"I love you, Scott Barringer," Shelby stated in a soft tone.

"I love you, Shelby Merrick," Scott replied just as softly as Shelby had.

Scott and Shelby stayed in each others arms for several moments before they made there way to their bedroom. Most would think that they would have sex at that point and enjoy each others bodies but they didn't. They lied in their bed together and simply enjoyed each others presence. They didn't speak to each other or tease each other; they cuddled with each other and feel asleep in each others arms.

Both were completely happy and content with each other. But above anything else, they were both completely in love with each other. And they both knew that they person they were with in that moment, was the person they would be with for the rest of their lives. That was the person they loved and wanted to be with forever. That person was their soul mate, in every way possible. They had the type of love that would last a life time.

Scott and Shelby really did have a life long love.

* * *

(**A/N**)- First off, thank you: **Melms213, ScottandShelby334, hdrox, Linkie, keke1, twin muse, Ishbu girl, Ghostwriter, OliverWoodsGurl4life, Gabriela, iluvtv2much, OthfanAnna, nefftys, tribaltaisan, Ashlyn Alexis, Natalie Skywalker, Tracy, ScottandShelbyfan, Mandy, LilSoccerBaby20, Ems, Grey Daze's Nirvana, Jessa Faerie, Neptunes Princess, 2008ccampbell, sweetgirl,Lavender Brown-Halliwell, mary-023, angel, Saun, HCLvr, SethxSummer4Evah, CracKHeaDwitskillz, LJSkywalker, ffff, N.Ottingerand jessmerrick.** I'm so happy that you all enjoyed this story and I thank you all so much for your support through out it all.

So, this is the last chapter. The Truth Comes Out has come to an end. I must confess, I didn't want this story to end. This story was my baby and I loved it. I still love it but it's not continuing. I think that's one of the reasons it took so long for me to get up. I kept delaying writing this chapter for that very reason. I didn't want this story to come to an end. Not to mention, I was never really satisfied with it. I wanted it to be so perfect. I hope I didn't disappoint.

And, this story is definitely having a sequel. The sequel will be called A new Life and it will have about a two year gap. I don't know how long it will take for me to get this up though. I know everything I want to happen but I don't have it planned chapter by chapter yet and this is one of my stories that I want to do that with(just like I did with TTCO and ABOAP) I don't really know how long the story will be either. I don't want to give much away but I will give you all a little taste though. All I will say though if that the first few chapters will consist of lots of flash backs and a wedding. Also, take the title seriously! Anyone who can figure that one out, my hats off to you. ;)

As for me as a writer, I plan on writing a 'Memories' chapter next. I don't know how long it will take to get up though because I have no idea where I plan on going with that story. I know I don't want it to end with that happy ending though. Who knows? Maybe my twisted mind wont let it have a happy ending at all. After I update that story, I plan on writing a chapter of 'All Because of a Play' and then one for 'Haunted'. My 'Haunted' chapter has a small chance of it being the last but it's still a small chance. Hopefully, I can keep that story going and end with chapter 10 but as with everything else, we'll see. After that, I'm thinking about writing a new story(probably a one shot) based completely around Scott. It's by Debbie's request that I write so I'm hoping to get that up with in the next couple of months. I don't have a title yet but I know pretty much what I plan on doing with it. If I think of more, it might be a continued story but as of right now, it's a one shot. Then, I will start the sequel to this story. So, if all goes well, this is how it happen. If all doesn't go well, then, I'm not sure what will happen.

Another thing, if anyone wants to see the S&S engagement ring, click on or copy and paste thisURL: http/img99.imageshack.us/img99/4354/ttcoring2cw.jpg I got the idea for this ring from my sister-in-laws engagement ring that I fell completely in love with.

Okay, well, I really hope that you all enjoyed this story and liked the last chapter. Please review and let me know how I did. And, once again, I thank all of your for following me through out this whole story and being so supportive of a young writer. Thank you, everyone!


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